


Catholic Girls and Cherry Chapstick

by emmaliza



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: (i don't know how else to warn but like be warned), (well borderline), 69 (Sex Position), Aftercare, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkwardness, Bondage, Car Sex, Communication, Communication Failure, Discussion of Petyr Baelish, Discussion of Wuthering Heights, Exhibitionism, F/F, First Date, Fisting, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Jealousy, Kink Negotiation, Light Dom/sub, Lingerie, Love Confessions, Masturbation, Multi, Pegging, Role Reversal, Sex Toys, Sexual Experimentation, Sexual Fantasy, Sexuality Crisis, Size Kink, Tribadism, dany owns a bad dragon dildo don't @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-02-02 21:12:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12734397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmaliza/pseuds/emmaliza
Summary: Catelyn can't believe she's doing this. She's sleeping with a blonde nineteen year old uni student she only knows via her nephew. She can't believe she's having that sort of mid-life crisis.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> overly long crack pairing fic ftw! (no seriously, has anyone ever written this pair before?)

“So, Bran's asleep, Arya's up doing homework, allegedly, and Rickon is in bed but I've had to stop him sneaking out to play videogames twice so keep an eye out, the laundry's in the dryer but than thing is on the brink, and I was about halfway through stacking the dishwasher before you came home.”

Cat sighs heavily and, perhaps more emotional than usual, she pulls the girl into a firm embrace. “Thank you, Dany, you're a life-saver.” It's not like she often needs a baby-sitter; usually, one of her eldest children is available, and if neither of them is she can just ask Jon, but he actually had work this time, and Cat was starting to panic before he volunteered his aunt. In truth, Catelyn doesn't know Daenerys all that well, she's only met the girl the few times Jon has failed to keep his two families adequately separated, but the children have always seemed to like her. In truth, Arya's almost fifteen now and could probably handle baby-sitting on her own, but Cat's always been overcautious when it comes to her babies.

If the hug is a little awkward, Dany doesn't show it, she squeezes Catelyn back tightly. “Don't worry about it,” she says, “I wasn't doing anything tonight anyway.” Once she lets go, she gives Catelyn a concerned look. “Are you alright?”

Cat nods automatically. “Oh, of course, just... tired.” She tries not to work late when she can, but well, she is a single mother now with five children, even though she knows Robb and Sansa do try to help out.

“I see,” Dany nods. “Well, I'll just finish with the dishes, and I'll be out of your hair,” she says.

“What? No,” Cat says, taking her coat off as she finally closes the door behind her. “I only asked you to baby-sit, you shouldn't have to do my chores. Go, be young, enjoy the night. I can stack the dishwasher.”

“You look like you'll collapse if you have to remain standing for a second longer,” Dany tells her firmly. She's rather small, this Daenerys, but has a remarkable strength of will when she wants to. Cat is slightly intimidated. “Go. Put your feet up. If you send me home now, I'm just going to have to finish an essay on the ancient Near East anyway.”

Cat smiles at that. Oh to be young and at uni again (not that she was ever young and at uni simultaneously). “Well, alright,” she concedes. “But I am going to feel very guilty.”

“I'm sure you'll survive.”

* * *

“Right, dishwasher is washing, children seemingly sleeping. My work here is done, I'd say.”

“Thank you,” Cat tells her as she curls up on her couch, glass of wine in hand. “Really, you didn't have to do all that. Come, have a drink, it's the least I can do.”

Dany looks bemused toward the empty glass waiting on the coffee table. “Alright,” she says, awkwardly perching next to Cat. She pours the bottle into her glass. Then, as she's about to bring the glass to her lips, she stops. “Actually, it's a good thing you've stopped me. I just remembered. Rhaegar wanted to invite you all to my birthday next week.”

“Oh?” Cat asks. She shouldn't be surprised. Rhaegar has never quite given up on becoming part of his son's other family, even though none of the Starks could ever quite forgive him for the knocking-up-their-sixteen-year-old-daughter thing. Still, Catelyn herself has always gotten along reasonably well with him, debates on literature aside. “Has he told Jon this?”

“...Possibly not,” Dany admits. Cat laughs – Jon's family life is and will probably always be very confusing. Still, the boy seems to cope. “But to be fair, I think half the reason Rhaegar's invited you all is so Jon doesn't half to do the running back and forth between my birthday and Bran's thing again.”

Catelyn nods. That has always been a little awkward for Jon, that Bran and Daenerys' birthdays are so close together – especially when Robb's is only a few weeks earlier. “What about you?” she asks, and the girl looks puzzled. “I mean? Do you want us there? It is your birthday, after all.”

A pause, and then Dany smiles at her. “Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that,” she says. Cat tries not to sigh too obviously with relief. “I like you lot. You're... more stable than most of my blood relatives.”

Catelyn raises an eyebrow. “That's not saying very much,” she says, and Dany laughs.

“True.” A silence falls between them then as they both sip their wine. Perhaps that's Cat's signal that the girl really ought to be heading home now, but she finds she doesn't want Dany to go. It's been so long since she's really been able to sit with someone and talk – it's not as if she doesn't have friends, but since Ned died, she's just been too busy to really keep up with them. She's been too busy for much of anything. Maybe one glass of wine with her nephew's teenage aunt is not quite the same thing, but it is relaxing.

“How old are you turning now, anyway?” she asks curiously.

“Nineteen,” says Dany, and Catelyn thinks _of course._ Robb just turned twenty, so Daenerys must be turning nineteen. “Crossing the threshold from barely legal to actually legal.”

Catelyn chokes a little on her wine at that, though she thinks she hides it well. “I see,” she says, and she knows there's no reason for her to be blushing as much as she is. She blames the wine. “You remember the age of consent here is a couple of years younger than in the U.S?”

“Yeah, I know, I've just watched a lot of American TV.”

“I see. Just – as a lawyer, I do have to check these things,” she says, and Daenerys smiles at her. She smiles a long time. It gets slightly odd. “Is something wrong?”

Dany looks surprised. “What? Oh, no. Sorry,” she says. “It's just... I admire you, you know.”

Cat blinks. “Huh?”

“You've never given up, you know? Never let yourself be held back,” Dany tells her. “Some girls, if they got pregnant at seventeen, they would have assumed that was the end of all their dreams. Not you. You've done all you can as a mother, but then you went right back and carried on being yourself. That takes strength. That takes guts.”

“That takes neuroses,” Catelyn says wryly, and Dany raises an eyebrow. She sighs and relaxes back into the couch. “I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I've pushed too hard, tried to be too much. Like I was trying to prove something, that one mistake didn't define who I was. More to myself than anything.” She's not sure she can really say it was one mistake, given she and Ned kept having kids after Robb, one after another, so she was about thirty before she got to go to law school like she originally planned. Still, that's her fault for being so Catholic about the contraception thing. “Maybe I can't really do it all. When Ned was around, it was easier...”

Daenerys does say anything at first, but she listens with a sympathetic look, and Cat finds it surprisingly nice to just be listened to. “I can cuddle you if it's needed,” Daenerys suggests. “You look like you could do with a cuddle. I've been told I'm rather good at it.”

Catelyn blushes again, slightly embarrassed, but she replies: “Thank you.” She's not sure why. Still, before long she has a young woman leaning against her shoulder, winding an arm around her neck, and Catelyn sighs, leaning against her. It's nice to be touched, and the girl is startlingly warm. She's not sure how she's going to explain this if one of her kids gets up in the middle of the night and goes wandering, as they are wont to do, but it doesn't seem to matter at the moment.

“You don't have to be ashamed of needing support,” Dany murmurs. “Everyone does. That just makes you human.”

“I know,” Cat sighs. “Really, I don't have much to complain about. I love my career, and I love my children. I wouldn't give them up for anything. Things might not have gone entirely according to plan, but they are good. I still miss Ned, but on the whole, my life is good.”

“It was worth missing out on your college lesbian experimentation phase then?” Daenerys grins at her. Catelyn blushes again.

“Er. Something like that,” she says, and Dany laughs. “Through I probably would have been too repressed for that anyway.”

“Poor you,” Dany muses. “If it makes you feel better, I missed out on it too. By figuring out I was bi at like fourteen, so there wasn't much point to experimenting. That was stupid of me, really.”

Catelyn blinks. “Wait, did you?” she asks. “Are you?”

Dany stops, pulls out of the cuddle. Catelyn curses herself in her head – that's none of her damn business; she shouldn't have asked. “Did you not know that?” Dany asks.

“No,” Cat says. She doesn't know how she would have known that – Jon might know that, but she can't think of any reason he'd have to discuss his aunt's sexuality with her. At the nervous look on Dany's face though, she feels quite guilty. “But I mean, it's not as if I have a problem with it,” she hurriedly explains. “I'm Catholic, but I'm not _that_ Catholic. Besides, two of my five children are dating people of the same sex. I've had to adjust.”

_I'm just overcompensating now, she'll think I really do have a problem,_ but Daenerys does look faintly relieved. “Oh. Of course,” she says, and shakes her head. “Sorry. I'm just so used to everyone knowing, I find it a bit weird when people don't, you know?”

“...I can't say I do,” Catelyn admits. Dany frowns. “Mostly, I just feel old – you know, that you millenials can figure that out so young. I'd never even kissed a girl at your age.” She pauses. “I've never kissed a girl now.”

“Really?” Dany sounds stunned. “Wow. You really did miss out on your lesbian experimentation phase. But like, you're in your late thirties, right? You would have gone to high school in the nineties. I've seen enough sitcom reruns to know faux-lesbian kissing was definitely a thing back then.”

Catelyn sighs. “Not if your family is as Irish as mine, I guess,” she says, sounding sadder than she has any reason to.

“Well. In your honour, I will now wear all the cherry chapstick I can find,” Dany tells her. Catelyn is just confused.  _What?_ “It's a song. Don't worry.”

Cat sighs. Now she feels even older. “I see.”

There's another awkward silence between them, while Daenerys looks her over, expression of confusion giving way to a smile – leaving Catelyn ever more confused. “Would you _like_ to kiss a girl?” Dany asks.

Cat's jaw drops open, she's lost for words, and she's left blushing and averting her eyes. “I – I don't know,” she says. “I've never really thought about it.” That might just be a lie. She may have had passing thought in her teen years – but she thought that was just teenage hormones. After she married Ned, there wasn't much point to wondering.

Besides, the way Robb explained it when he finally told her about him and Theon (at least three years after she'd figured it out on her own), he'd been in love with the boy since he was six, and since then he'd always sort of known. Sansa has never elaborated in as much detail, but Cat suspects it was much the same.

Cat is thirty eight. Surely, if she did like girls, she would know by now?

She looks back at Daenerys, who is simply staring at her, and grinning. Cat doesn't know why she's grinning. Nor does she know why she's moving, leaning in to Cat and–

Oh dear.

Cat lets out a small squeak of surprise as soft lips press down over hers, gentle and almost shy. Daenerys doesn't push with her kiss, she seems to be deliberately leaving plenty of opportunity for Catelyn to break away if she so wishes – but Cat doesn't. After a second, her eyes drift closed, and she starts to kiss back. It's not like kissing Ned, the squareness of his jaw, the roughness of his stubble. But it is nice. Daenerys' fine platinum hair brushes over Catelyn's shoulders as she cups Cat's jaw, pulling her closer. Then Cat realises the girl is crawling into her lap. She's surprised, but she doesn't refuse; hesitant, she lays her hands across the girl's hips, pulling her in further. She parts her lips, and Dany's tongue meets hers with relish. Cat is half-tempted to run her hands over the girl's body, to squeeze her behind or cup her breasts, but she's not quite that brave yet. She's not overly sure what's happening. But she has missed being kissed.

Daenerys is the one to break away, leaving Cat panting a little, looking up utterly bewildered. The girl grins. “I ought to be heading home,” she says, and gives Catelyn one last peck. Cat just sits there, totally dumbfounded, as Dany collects her wineglass and takes it to the kitchen before gathering her things and leaving. "I'll see you at my birthday."

 


	2. Chapter 2

It's stupid to even really think about it. It's not like the kiss meant anything. It's not like it could mean anything. Poor Jon doesn't need that mess on his family tree for one thing. Also Catelyn remains, as she has always been, a straight woman. Like Dany said, young women do that all the time – Cat has something crossed off her bucket list, brilliant, but there's no more to be made of it.

Cat groans. It's been three days, and she's still not sleeping properly.

She's always been a light sleeper, but this is insufferable. She turns on her side and eyes the clock warily, blinking _1:37_ at her in blinding red. She's meant to be up for work by six. She flips back onto her back, sighing melodramatically. It's a cold night, but she feels hot and sweaty. She kicks her duvet away.

As much for lack of anything to do as anything, she finds herself reaching beneath the covers, rubbing at the front of her knickers. Insomnia is _boring._ She's not even really aroused, but well, it's as likely to help her sleep as anything. Perhaps she's still not quite used to being alone in the bed. That thought makes her wince.

She doesn't think about Ned. Enough time's passed that it wouldn't make her burst into tears as it once would have, but the pain is still there, lingering beneath her pleasure – and it's easier to just stay away, as much as she can. She doesn't usually think about anyone she knows. That might be an indictment on how little she gets out of the house. She tries to stick to strangers she's seen passing and movie stars – it's cleaner.

But of course, her thoughts go sliding back towards that night on the couch. They keep doing that. The next morning, the kids all noticed how distracted she was, kept worrying there was something wrong at work – no matter how Cat tried to deny it. Once they were all off at school and such, she even found herself staring at her phone, wondering if the girl might call, before remembering Daenerys would have no idea what her number is.

It's not like anything happened. It was just a kiss. Catelyn's just a sad middle-aged woman obsessing over the most action she's gotten in three years. She sighs and closes her eyes, and it all comes back. That soft blonde hair, those violet eyes. How small and delicate she looked. And that smile, that tiny little smile – knowing, wicked, and in complete control.

Catelyn groans and slides her fingers beneath her underwear. It's stupid, but she can't help but imagine if things went further, if Dany wasn't in such a rush to leave. She imagines being lain down on the couch, and having the buttons of her blouse popped open, one by one. _Someone will see,_ she'd probably whisper, knowing her.

_Let them see,_ Dany would answer, and Cat reaches up to tweak one of her nipples as she imagines Daenerys doing the same. She imagines the girl pushing her skirt up around her waist, leaving her half-dressed like that, kissing along her thighs. _I want to see you._

Cat groans, rubbing her clit. This is taking too long. She sits up and switches her lamp on, leaning down to rummage in her bottom drawer. She takes out her vibrator, one specially invested in to be extra quiet – there's not much choice when you share a house with five children. She glances at it suspiciously for a second. It's a very conventional shape, and perhaps an inch longer than it really needs to be – it's clearly the vibrator of a woman who's used to her sexual encounters involving a penis. But that's hardly the point.

She turns the light back off and slides beneath the covers, taking her knickers off with her free hand. With the tip of the toy she teases along her slit, imagining Daenerys doing the same with her fingers. _You like that? You want me to put them in there?_ She doesn't know why she's imagining the girl talking so much. Ned was always so quiet in bed. _Do you feel_ empty _Mrs. Stark?_

Cat gasps and pushes it inside her, feeling her walls stretch at the sensation. She could have given herself a bit more foreplay, but now she's started she hardly wants to stop. _Oh that's it... spread your legs for me, good girl..._ she imagines Daenerys burying – something in her, maybe just her own vibrator, but there is a certain wickedness to the fantasy of having someone else holding it. She imagines the girls hands rubbing along her thighs, pinching and leaving bruises, leaning over to tease her nipples with her teeth. Catelyn whimpers. _Want me to turn it on?_

There's no reason not to. Cat presses the button, and bites her lip as the powerful shiver rings through her insides. _That's it,_ Dany whispers in her ear, _fuck yourself for me._ And Catelyn does, slowly moving the vibrator in and out, making her hand go slightly numb. _Fuck yourself for me... and come help me out._

Catelyn's caught off guard by what she's imagining; the girl, still smiling that knowing smile, moving above her, settling over her face. Cat blushes. She's never done that before in her life, she'd hardly know where to begin, but all of a sudden she wants to. She imagines it would taste salty. Perhaps it would be less bitter than a man's–? _That's it,_ she imagines the girl rocking against her face, squirming in pleasure, making Catelyn eat her harder and faster. _Fuck me with your tongue. That's my good girl..._

Cat chokes back a cry as she clenches around her vibrator and spasms, stroking her clit idly, writhing through her orgasm. Impossible as it is, it feels like she can taste the girl on her tongue. It takes her a moment to recover, and when she does, a voice that sounds alarmingly like her sister's comes to mind: _still so sure you're straight, Cat?_

She sighs, and reaches down to switch the toy off. She hesitates a moment before pulling it out, but no, it's late and she really does need sleep. She wipes it clean on the sheets and throws it back into the drawer – she can clean it properly in the morning.

It's still stupid to even be thinking about this. She's sure Daenerys has forgotten all about it. Hopefully, by the time she sees the girl again, at her birthday, Catelyn will have also forgotten all about it.

* * *

It's the day of Daenerys' birthday. Catelyn hasn't forgotten all about it.

“Sansa, sweetheart, have you seen my plum lipstick? I can't seem to find it anywhere.”

Whenever cosmetics go missing, Sansa is usually somehow involved. Sure enough she appears by Catelyn's side, tube in hand. “Here you go,” she says, and Catelyn looks into her mirror and swipes the colour over her lips. Then she frowns. Is it too much? Too dark for her complexion? Maybe she looks vampy...

While Cat is doing this, Sansa looks her over in the mirror – her smart navy dress with the v-neck, down to the knee, formal but not to much so; her sapphire stud earings and delicate silver pendant about her neck, and white leather flats, pretty, but not insensible. On her bed lays about five other dresses she discarded for making her look either like a dinnerlady or like mutton dressed as lamb. Sansa smirks. “What are you getting all dressed up for then?”

Catelyn stops. “I'm not getting dressed up.” Indeed, that's part of what's taking her so long – she doesn't want Daenerys to think she's dressed up.

“Uh-huh,” says Sansa, clearly not believing a word. Dammit. “Mum, I know you. You only bother wearing more than one of two shades of lipstick when you're up for promotion.”

Catelyn groans. “I'm taking this off,” she says and reaches for a tissue. “I look like the album art of one of Jon's favourite records.”

Sansa squeezes her shoulder. “You look lovely,” she insists. “I'm sure whoever you're trying to impress will be very much so.”

Catelyn blushes. “I'm not trying to impress anyone,” she says.

“You sure? Because it's okay if you are!” says Sansa. “Really. It's been three years. Dad would want you to move on.”

Cat sighs. Yes, she's sure Ned would – with someone of her own age, and not with his teenage pseudo-sister-in-law. She still remembers what it was like when Jon was sixteen and first started dating Ygritte, and Ned was scandalised by this older woman who was all of nineteen cradle-robbing his beloved nephew. He'd only just started to warm up to the girl before he died.

Besides, it's not like there's even anything between her and Daenerys. It was one kiss, that's all; Catelyn's not fool enough to read anything into it. “Darling, I promise: if there was anyone new in my life, I would tell you,” she lies. Sansa looks less than convinced. Cat sighs. “Are you sure about this lipstick?”

Sansa rolls her eyes. “Yes, mum, now get a move on, we'll all be late,” she says, dragging Catelyn away from the mirror. Then she pauses. “Though put a coat on, you'll freeze.”

_Oh god, she really is me._ Cat chews her lip nervously. “I... couldn't really find one that would go with the dress.”

Sansa gives her a disbelieving look. “Don't be ridiculous, your white coat goes with it perfectly,” she says, and grabs it from the bed, throwing it at Cat. “There you go, lightens the whole ensemble. Now come on!”

* * *

“Right,” says Cat as she arranges her children and their attached significant others in the courtyard, like she's preparing an army for war. “Have we got everything? Salads?”

“Check,” says Bran, several bowls balanced precariously on his knees.

“Wine?”

“Uh-huh,” says Robb, keeping it neatly out of his boyfriend's grasp.

“Present?”

“Right here, Mrs. Stark,” says Margaery, lifting up the small box in yellow tissue paper, held together with a white ribbon. Cat wonders if she should have bothered wrapping it so thoroughly.

Cat takes a deep breath. “Okay, is there anything else?”

“I call shotgun!” Arya announces, which isn't quite what she meant but still, it's good to have that sorted out.

Bran frowns and rolls over so he can peer in the windows. “How are we doing for seats usually?”

Cat follows him in peering. They bought this huge SUV with space for six children, or five children and a wheelchair as it turned out, when the kids were young and it suited them for most of their childhood, but now they've all started getting boyfriends and girlfriends that's complicated matters. Without Ned, there's room for one more, and usually they get Theon to drive Robb if they don't have the space, but apparently his car's in repair (which Cat suspects might be code for him having his license suspended, but she's too polite to ask). She counts. “I think we're one short?”

“Sansa and I don't mind sharing a seat, Mrs. Stark,” Margaery suggests helpfully, and Sansa blushes and elbows her in the ribs.

“Marg!”

Catelyn narrows her eyes suspiciously. The mother in her wants to say _no, absolutely not,_ but they are short a seat and they don't have another car. In hindsight she should have asked Jon to come round so some of them could have gotten a lift with him and Ygritte, but it's too late now. Well, she trusts Margaery won't get too handsy in a car surrounded by her girlfriend's siblings – it least, she trusts Margaery wouldn't do that more than she trusts Theon wouldn't, and she doesn't think she could talk any of her actual children She sighs. “Very well.”

They all file in, and as she settles into the driver's seat, Catelyn catches a glimpse of her lipstick in the mirror. It really is very purple. _Stop worrying about it,_ she tells herself. _There's no reason to worry._

As she drives, Cat tries not to get too distracted, either by that or by Margaery and Sansa being cute and leaning their foreheads together behind her, and Theon making quiet encouraging comments behind them (and alright, she appreciates he's still attracted to women, but does he have to make such a point of it?). Catelyn's not going to fool herself that Margaery's intentions toward her daughter are entirely innocent, but Sansa can make her own decisions, and besides compared to most of Sansa's boyfriends the girl is practically a saint. So Catelyn tries to give them their privacy. She also tries not to laugh too loudly at Arya pulling 'bleurgh' faces next to her.

* * *

“Right, here we are,” Cat says as she slides the doors open, and her children all immediately disperse. Robb is running off to catch up with Jon, which means Theon gets roped along, which is funny because even after all these years Jon and Theon still just barely get along. Sansa and Margaery are off to examine the architecture. Arya's bounding over to Ygritte, who greets her with a massive and a ruffle of the hair. Catelyn's not even sure where Bran and Rickon have gone, but they have.

“...Don't worry about me, go, have fun,” she mutters, indulging in self-pity for just a second.

A chuckle. “Teenagers, huh?”

She turns around and smiles. “Hi Rhaegar,” she says.

“Hi,” he says.

“Look, I know you told me not to bring anything, so–”

“You only brought two wines and a salad?” he suggests. Cat flushes slightly.

“One wine and two salads,” she admits. “I couldn't remember if any of you had an egg allergy, so I made one without just in case.”

Rhaegar grins. “I would expect no less from you,” he says. He's about to reach for the salads and take them into the house when another car, white and much more conventionally sized, rolls up behind them. “Elia,” says Rhaegar. He smiles nervously at Catelyn. “Wish me luck.”

Really, the fact Elia is here at all, at the house of a man who left her with two children under the age of four, for a sixteen year old girl, is a small miracle in and of itself. The fact he felt guilty enough about it he let her take basically everything, including the children, in the divorce helps, but still. Elia would be well within rights to never want to see him again, but they both make a valiant effort, for the children's sake presumably. Rhaegar is now hugging his daughter, calling her some Spanish endearment and telling her how she looks taller every time he sees her – which really, Rhaenys must be in her early twenties by now, she's probably stopped growing. Still, looking at them, it's hard to imagine how Rhaegar ever thought leaving his wife for a younger woman was a good idea. Cat winces.

She makes her way over to the back garden, running into Jon and Ygritte, as well Lyanna. The boy's whole messy family tree is here it seems. Really, Cat should be glad her children keep dating people of the same sex, given what a mess heterosexuality caused their generation. Ygritte hands her a beer, and Catelyn takes it, despite not really being a beer drinker. Then Arya comes back, insisting Ygritte come help her practice her karate. Ygritte grins and follows, as does Jon, watching them and smiling. Left alone with Cat, Lyanna sighs deeply.

Cat frowns. “Is something wrong?”

“He wants to propose,” Lyanna mutters miserably.

Cat blinks, surprised. She supposes it does make a certain amount of sense; Jon and Ygritte have been together for over three years now, and been living together for about a year, it'd be the point they'd consider that, except... “He's rather young, isn't he?”

“That's what I said,” says Lyanna, and she takes a big gulp of her beer. “I mean, I know he's not a kid anymore, he can make his own decisions, but – like. He's nineteen. He's still basically a kid, you know?”

Cat nods. “I know.” Nobody knows the urge to keep your children young and safe better than she does; hence getting a fifteen year old babysat. “But I suppose you have to let them live their own lives,” she says.

“Yeah, I just don't want him making my mistakes, you know?” Lyanna says, and Catelyn nods understandingly. Then she flinches. This whole discussion is just a bit uncomfortable at the moment, she should maybe change the subject.

“So, do you have any idea where the birthday girl is? I feel I ought to give her her present.”

_...Well done, Cat._ Lyanna blinks in surprise. “Dany? Um, I think she's still inside. Had to provide more snacks or something.” She pauses and grimaces nervously. “Wait, were we meant to bring a present? I didn't remember to bring a present.”

Catelyn hesitates. “Well I wasn't really sure myself, but I figured just to be on the safe side,” she says. Was that wrong of her? “I'll – I'll go find her and ask.”

“...Okay,” says Lyanna, sounding more than a little nonplussed. Catelyn walks off, all the while thinking _well this is a terrible idea._

* * *

When she steps inside, the house is totally empty. Untouched bowls of fruit and nuts lie on the coffee table, but everyone's outside, so no-one's eating them. She doesn't see Daenerys anywhere, and she's too embarrassed to call out for the girl. She's just about to turn around and head back to the garden when she hears a creak at the top of the stairs.

Catelyn looks up. And there is the most stunning girl she's ever seen – in a white t-shirt, denim shorts over black tights, white-gold hair messily braided, and wearing a beautiful dark purple lipstick.

_God help me,_ thinks Catelyn. _I'm the main character of a middle-aged English teacher's first novel._

 


	3. Chapter 3

“Catelyn,” says Dany, grinning at her. “Hi there. I didn't know you were here already.”

A moment's pause, and then Cat manages to cough to clear her throat and her head. “We're very punctual,” she says. “Hello.”

Dany walks down the stairs and as she does, Catelyn's eyes are drawn to the small rucksack and suitcase perched at the end of it. She frowns. “Are you travelling somewhere?” she asks, looking back at Dany.

The girl blinks. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I meant to say – you lot all have to be out by eight,” she says. “Rhaegar and I have a train to catch. My mum insisted I spent at least some of my birthday with her, and so once this party's done we're off for two weeks in Paris.”

“Oh, that's lovely,” says Catelyn. _There is no reason to be disappointed,_ she tells herself. And part of her wants to ask if that doesn't bother Daenerys, that her mother is off exploring herself in Europe and needs her daughter to come to her, but then again Dany is off at uni herself, and she always has Rhaegar. Either way, it's none of Catelyn's business. “I admit, I can't help but be jealous. With my work I'm lucky I can spend a day by the beach.”

Dany gives her a sympathetic look. “Can't you get any time off?”

“I could, but...” Catelyn sighs and trails off, not sure how to finish her sentence. “Oh, this is for you.” She hurriedly pulls the box from her handbag, and successfully changes the subject.

Daenerys looks surprised. “Oh. You know, I didn't really expect you to bring a present.”

Cat pauses while she's halfway through handing it over. “Now you tell me.”

Dany laughs and plucks the box from her hand. “I mean, I'm not going to complain. Thank you,” she says, but Cat can't quite quell the nerves that flutter in her stomach. She hopes Daenerys doesn't think she means something by it. Daenerys roughly tugs at the ribbon and lets it flutter to the floor, popping the lid off. She grins. “Oh. It's beautiful.”

From the box Dany picks out a thick silver bangle, engraved with intricate designs. “It's the four seasons,” Catelyn contributes, unhelpfully. “See the four sections? Summer, winter, autumn–”

“And spring,” says Daenerys. Cat blushes. The girl knows what the seasons are. “I love it.”

“Oh good,” says Catelyn, sighing in relief. “I considered getting you something with a dragon on it, but–”

“I already have a lot of dragons,” says Dany, and Cat nods. Then Dany pauses. “Wait, how do you know about my dragon thing?”

Catelyn hesitates. “I – Jon must mentioned it, I guess.” That's the only explanation she can think of.

Dany nods, but she's giving Cat that mysterious smile again, and Cat can feel her blush deepening. _Curse the redhead gene._ “Anyway, Sansa helped me pick it out,” she says. “And it wasn't very expensive. So...” So what? What does that matter?

The girl laughs. “You know, you don't have to tell me that,” she says, and closes the bangle around her wrist. _It matches her hair,_ thinks Catelyn. Daenerys sighs. “Actually, I didn't want to talk to you about something. To apologise, sort of.”

Catelyn blinks. “What ever for?”

A faint blush rises to Dany's cheeks then. “You know, the other night. When I kissed you.” Cat's blush deepens further, and she quickly looks around to make sure no-one is listening. The girl says it so _casually_. “I thought I might have freaked you out, and really, I should have asked for proper permission. But I mean, you did seem to enjoy it?”

“Oh, oh don't worry,” Cat says hurriedly, red as a fire engine. “It was fine. Better than fine. I–”

“Dany?”

They both spin around to see Rhaegar poking his head through the door, smiling at them apologetically. “I don't think your cake is going to last much longer with Rickon around. You want to come cut it?”

Dany smiles and nods. “Just a second,” she says, and turns back to Catelyn. “So we're good?”

Cat nods. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

As they both walk out, Rhaegar looks a little confused, but he doesn't ask.

* * *

They return to the party proper, Daenerys goes and makes the rounds, ingratiating herself to the whole extended Targaryen clan, while Catelyn busily, if futilely, insists Rickon eat something other than cake and chips. There is entirely too much food at this party; there's no way they'll all be able to eat it by eight. Oh well, at least her salads seem popular – Elia comes up to her and compliments her on them, and then they make small talk trading recipes for five minutes. Most of her children seem to have gotten themselves involved in a very messy game of soccer with Theon and Ygritte that does not appear to have teams as such. Even Bran is serving as goalie. Margaery and Sansa sit to the side, occasionally sharing kisses and bites of cake, possibly just as a ploy to distract Theon, it's not clear.

“Mum,” Rickon grunts by her side. “Lemonade.”

Catelyn looks toward the lemonade, currently out of her son's reach, and then toward him. She raises an eyebrow. “Sweetheart, manners?”

“Please?” he adds. Catelyn sighs. That's about as many words as she gets out of Rickon these days anyway. She grabs the jug and starts to pour his cup, which really he could probably handle on his own, but now she's started it's a bit late to stop.

“Hey! Dany!” Ygritte calls as Dany walks away from a conversation with Rhaenys, tossing the ball in the air, “Wanna play with us?”

Dany pauses a second. “Yeah, sure!” she answers. “Just give me a second to warm up first.”

And then Catelyn watches as Daenerys stretches; she wraps her arms around her neck and pops her chest into the air, she bends over and touches her fingers to her toes–

“Mum? You're spilling the lemonade.”

“What?” Catelyn's attention is snapped back to Earth and she notices the liquid pouring over from Rickon's cup. “Oh, crap!” she says and the jug goes flying, making a mess everywhere, all over the table and all over her dress. She sighs in frustration and humiliation. Great. How many more times is she going to make a fool of herself today?

“Catelyn,” says Elia from across the table, concerned, “are you alright?”

“Fine,” Cat says, trying to dry her dress with her hands and not succeeding to any great extent. “I just – got distracted for a second. I'll go get a towel.”

She does not know where the towels are, but she needs to make an escape. “I'll show you to the linen cupboard,” says – Daenerys, who has somehow appeared by her side. Catelyn blinks, more than a little surprised, but she acquiesces easily – eagerly, some might say.

Cat doesn't speak as Dany guides her back through the door and up the stairs, to a cupboard in the middle of the corridor. She's too embarrassed. As Dany opens the cupboard and hands her a towel, she gives Catelyn a sympathetic look again. “You can borrow some of my clothes if you like,” she says.

“Oh, that won't be necessary,” Catelyn says automatically, patting herself down with the towel.

“Are you sure? You're soaked through.”

_That might be the problem,_ Cat's mind suggests, unhelpfully. “I'm not sure they would fit,” she says, nodding to Dany's svelte figure, unlike her own which was fairly curvy even before she had five children.

Daenerys just shrugs at that. “Never know until you try. Come on, my room's this way.”

And Catelyn follows the girl to her room, which is not getting slightly pathetic at all. A suitcase spills open, and overall it looks only recently lived in again – Daenerys is back at home for the holidays. On the ways are about a dozen posters, all along a certain theme. Catelyn blinks. “That is a lot of dragons.”

Daenerys grins at her sheepishly. “I had a phase. That I never really grew out of,” she admits, and starts pulling open drawers. She grabs a long-sleeved t-shirt and loose pair of slacks. “There. Maybe not party wear, but it's probably a bit cold for dresses anyway. It's probably too cold to be having a party outdoors to be honest, but Rhaegar had his heart set on the family barbecue, I couldn't bring myself to say no.”

Catelyn chuckles at that. “They're fine. Thank you very much,” she says, and Daenerys nods. Then she reaches for her zip, and hesitates. _No, don't just take your clothes off in front of her without warning._

Daenerys bites her lip. “I can turn around if you like,” she suggests.

“No, no, that's fine,” Catelyn says, and then she blushes when she realises what she's committed herself to. Still, she can't back out now, so she reaches for her zip and tries to pull it down. Of course, it immediately gets stuck. “Dammit,” she whispers.

Daenerys looks faintly amused. “Need some help?”

Catelyn blushes deeper, but turns around, leaving herself to the girl's mercy. She finds herself facing Daenerys' mirror, and she bites her lip as her zip glides down smoothly in the girl's hands, before she pushes the dress down roughly around Catelyn's shoulders. Her dull, white, overwashed bra is revealed, and Catelyn finds herself wishing she'd worn – well, not _sexy_ underwear or anything like that, but perhaps something a little less utilitarian. So as not to focus on the sight of herself being stripped by this gorgeous young woman, she stares at the makeup in front of Dany's mirror instead. “We have the same lipstick,” she murmurs.

Dany pauses. “So we do,” she says, and looks over Catelyn's shoulder in the mirror, smiling. “I noticed that before, actually. We match.”

The colour is the same, but Daenerys' looks far more expertly applied. “I don't wear this colour very often,” Cat says. “I don't think it really suits me. I'm too old for such dark colours.”

Daenerys frowns. “I like it on you,” she says as she pushes Catelyn's dress down to her ankles, and Cat struggles not to gasp. “It brings out your eyes.”

Cat turns back around, and finds herself staring at the girl. She swallows hard. “Daenerys,” she says, trying not to let her voice waver. “I wanted to ask you something...”

“What is it?”

Catelyn lets her mouth drop open, struggles for words a moment, and then she leans forward and presses her lips to Dany's.

It's rough and clumsy, even someone as inexperienced at kissing girls as Catelyn can tell that, not least because she has to lean _down_ to kiss Daenerys, which is new. After a few seconds, Daenerys steps back, looking surprised.

“Wow,” she says. “Okay, that's not how I normally get questions phrased.”

Cat blushes again, mortified. _Oh great,_ she thinks. _She really meant nothing by that kiss after all, and now I've made family gatherings unbelievably awkward for the rest of eternity._ “I – sorry,” she stammers, “that was completely inappropriate, I'll just–”

She can hardly just go, given she's still half-naked, but even before she could Daenerys grabs her arm to stop her. “No, it's fine. I mean...” She gives that mysterious little smile again, rises up on her tiptoes, and presses her lips to Catelyn's.

It goes more smoothly this time, and Cat sighs, letting her eyes drift closed as she leans back into the girl. Dany's tongue presses at her lips and Cat opens her mouth slightly, letting herself be explored, clinging to Dany's shoulders to get closer. The girl tastes of fruit and smells of flowers; she seems like everything nature made fresh and new.

Dany pulls back as Cat is left panting slightly. She smirks. “ _That_ would be my answer,” she says.

“...Oh,” Catelyn says breathlessly, and standing there half-naked in a teenage girl's room, when she was meant to be getting towels to clean up after herself, all her worries leave her.

It's barely a second before they kiss again.

The reticence is gone from it this time and it quickly gets rougher, dirtier. Cat opens her mouth wide and allows Daenerys to plunder her with her tongue. She doesn't mind letting the girl take the lead; after all, the girl knows what she's doing far more. Still, Dany's face might be smaller and softer than a man's, but it all grows more familiar the longer they're entertwined. Catelyn tangles her fingers in Daenerys' long blonde hair, relishing the feel of it in her hands, and she moans softly into the girl's mouth. Dany returns the favour by reaching around and squeezing Catelyn's rear, making her gasp.

“Bed,” Dany breaks the kiss to state, and Cat lets herself be pulled forward until she collapses on top of her on the bed, giggling like a school girl.

Daenerys winds her fingers through Catelyn's locks and pulls her into another kiss. Cat moans softly as she tangles their legs together, bringing her knee up to rub the girl through her denim shorts, and Dany shivers underneath her.

“I admit,” Catelyn says breathlessly as Daenerys breaks away from her mouth to suckle along her jawline instead, “I could have dressed more appropriately for this. Feels strange to be making out in my granny panties.”

“Take them off then,” Dany suggests like it's the most obvious thing in the world, and Catelyn has to laugh at the girl's brazenness.

“Well that's hardly fair,” she teases. “Here I am half-naked, and you haven't taken a single thing off yet.”

Dany pulls back, seeming to consider this for a moment. “True.” Then Cat lets out a small cry as she finds herself flipped over onto her back, while Dany towers above her, grinning. “Though to be fair, I didn't exactly dress appropriately either. Tights aren't the most convenient clothes for hooking up.”

Cat doesn't answer that, she just bites her lip as she watches Dany start to pull her shirt off. She sees just the sparkle of a pierced navel before they hear a voice.

“Mum?”

Dany stops dead and Cat's eyes go wide. _Robb._ Shit, she should have realised someone would come looking for her; why didn't she think? “Where are you?”

“In here, sweetheart,” Catelyn answers instinctively, and Daenerys gives her a disbelieving look. Cat curses herself. _Stupid._ Now she has to think fast. “Daenerys was just lending me some dry clothes,” she says, which is partly true. “I'm not quite dressed yet. Is something the matter?”

Robb stops outside the door and sighs deeply. “Arya thinks Sansa stole and/or lost the watch she gave her to look after during our soccer game,” he says. “Margaery is currently trying to keep the peace, but we kind of need you to come sort things out.”

Catelyn nods. _Of course._ “I'll be down in a second, love,” she promises, and she waits until she hears Robb walking away before she sighs at Daenerys. “Sorry.”

“That's okay, I understand,” Dany says, crawling off her and offering her a hand back up. “Motherhood calls.”

Catelyn blushes as she reaches for the clothes she was offered, long since forgotten. Yes it does, and she's pretty sure motherhood isn't meant to call her and find her doing _this_.

Once she's dressed and ready to go, Dany leans in and kisses her cheek innocently. “Raincheck?” she suggests.

Catelyn doesn't answer, but she smiles and bites her lip.

* * *

For the record, it turns out that Arya's watch got stuck in the spokes of Bran's wheels. No-one is entirely sure how that happened, but all's well that ends well.

She and Daenerys don't get to spend any time alone together after that; Dany is too busy playing hostess, Catelyn is too busy playing mother. Still, it's probably for the best. Lyanna raises an eyebrow once she comes back out, and Cat can't help but worry everyone can see her not-quite-sex hair. It would be worse if things went any further. Really, leaving aside the absurdity of who she's having this dalliance with, who does that at a family birthday party?

Still, once it gets to 7:15 and she decides to strap her various children into the car and drive them home, Daenerys comes up to her to say goodbye. “Catelyn,” she says and hugs her. Cat hugs back and does her best not to blush. She doesn't want to give anything away, and besides, young women hug each other all the time. “Thank you so much for coming.”

It's hard not to read too much into the words, but Cat thinks she manages it. “Thanks for inviting me. Us,” she corrects herself, and Dany smiles. “Well, I guess we're off then.”

“Wait, before you go,” Dany says, “can I borrow your phone a moment?”

Cat blinks. She doesn't know why Daenerys can't use her own phone, or the house phone, but maybe it's one of those millenial things. She hands it over, and watches as Dany silently and efficiently presses a bunch of numbers.

“There,” Dany announces, handing it back. Catelyn looks down and blinks. _Oh._ Daenerys has put her number into Cat's phone. “Any time you need a baby-sitter, just call, alright?”

“...Yeah,” says Catelyn, pursing her lips as she slides the phone back into her bag. She realises there's no good reason for her heart to be thumping like that. “Well. Thanks again. I'll try and get these clothes back to you sometime.”

“No rush,” Dany tells her as she walks away, and once Catelyn finally hops in the car, she takes a moment to sigh deeply.

Then she looks sideways to see Arya glancing at her suspiciously. “What are you smiling about?” she asks.

Cat completely fails not to blush again. “I'm not,” she insists, and hurriedly turns the key and sets her mind to driving, so she won't have to see how much her daughter does not believe her.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Catelyn is tired. She gets home from work past midnight and collapses onto the couch, sighing heavily. There's a big new case at her firm, major fraud involving a man embezzling from his own son to set his mistress up on a Pacific Island somewhere. Catelyn is too junior to be involved directly, but it's all anyone can talk about, and the work from all their other cases is falling onto the lesser partners.

A selfish part of her wishes one of her children was up to say hello to her, but it's a school night, they ought to be in bed – they'll be in trouble if they're not.

She should just go straight to bed, get a good night's sleep for another day of hard work tomorrow, but instead she finds herself slumping ever deeper over the couch, staring at her phone. She scrolls through her contacts, and then curses herself in her head. She's not used the phone number Daenerys gave her since the girl's birthday – after all, if she was in Europe, what would be the point? But it's been three weeks, she must be back by now. Dangerous thoughts form in Catelyn's mind. _No, no, no_.

She needs to put a stop to this. She is the adult, it is her responsibility. Daenerys might be a beautiful young woman, and Catelyn might even be able to adjust to the thought she would be attracted to a beautiful young woman, but this – _affair,_ if that's what it is, is unacceptable. She's old enough to be the girl's mother. She can't imagine what Ned would think.

Cat taps her phone and starts a new text message.

But even ignoring the reasonable part of her that thinks this is a terrible idea, she's still at a loss for what to even write. How do you initiate conversation with your nephew's aunt who made out with you at her nineteenth birthday party? _'Sorry, I think I left one of my salad bowls at your house, by the way if you're interested you'll find me tied to my bed covered in taramasalata?'_

Biting her lip, Catelyn finds herself sending a very short message. _Hello._

It seems dumb as soon as she reads it back. Hello? Who texts just to say hello? Who texts at 12:34 am just to say hello? Daenerys is probably in bed herself anyway. That, or she's off having fun with her friends, or up all night studying, but either way she has better things to do with her evenings than text some lonely old woman who–

_hey! what are u doing up?_

Catelyn blinks. _Well that was fast._ Her fingers hesitate over the screen. _Now how to reply?_

_Just got home from work,_ she writes. _Big case. I'm exhausted._ She pauses. _And none of the kids were up to greet me when I got home, so maybe I'm feeling a little lonely too._

She shouldn't have written that, she thinks as she presses send. That's not Dany's problem. She's just going to freak the girl out. Still, it's too late now, and all she can do is chew her lip nervously as those three grey dots flash teasingly on her screen.

_need cheering up? want me to come over?_

Catelyn blinks. The girl is so forward, and she makes it so easy to give in.

_Thank you. That would be lovely._

She bites her lip again, harder.

_be there in ten min. look out for sky blue car._

* * *

Ten minutes later, Catelyn looks out the window and sees a sky blue car pulling up by her curb. _Maybe it's not her,_ she thinks, but sky blue is a pretty unusual paint colour. It's tiny, and Catelyn would have thought Daenerys (or rather Rhaegar) could afford something bigger, but she thinks it's one of those environment-friendly hybrids, and those can be expensive.

“I'm babbling,” she says aloud, even though there's no-one to hear her babble, and she's only doing it in her head. Quickly she looks over her shoulder to make sure none of her children are up and sneaking about, and then as soft-footed as she can possibly manage, she sneaks out the front door.

She walks through the front path, out the gate, and she's just about to muster the courage to knock on the window when Daenerys rolls it down. Catelyn looks around nervously. _What if the neighbours see me?_

“Hi there,” says Dany, calling her attention back to earth. “You going to get in?”

“Hmm?” asks Catelyn. “Oh, of course. Sorry.”

Catelyn pops open the door and slides in the passenger seat. She looks around. The car is rather cramped, rather messy to, but she can't deny there's a charm to it – a warmth. She looks back towards Danerys, who is smiling at her, again. “You're nervous.”

“I'm not nervous,” Cat insists, and Dany just raises an eyebrow. She sighs. “Alright, yes I am. I never said I could lie. Still, to be fair, I feel like a spy like this, sneaking out in the middle of the night.”

“Well I'm the one skulking in my parked car in front of your house for no good reason,” says Dany, laughing. “If the cops get called on me, we're both going to have to do a lot of explaining.”

Catelyn bites her lip again. _Yes, because you're the one they ought to call the cops on._ Dany clearly sees the look that crosses her face, and seems worried.

“Everything alright?”

“Oh, of course,” Catelyn lies brazenly. _This is wrong, and I should go back inside before things go too far._ But she stays sitting just where she is.

“Right,” says Dany, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. “So. Did you want to – go somewhere?”

“No,” says Catelyn, crossing her legs. She wishes she didn't know so well what she wants. “This is fine.”

Dany keeps tapping. “Well then,” she says, “what are we going to do tonight, Mrs–”

Catelyn leans forward and seizes the girl's lips with her own.

Dany jumps at first, surprised, but quickly dives into it, her tongue pushing into Cat's mouth as her hands push into her hair. It's like the last three weeks never happened and they're back in Dany's bedroom, carrying on where they were interrupted. Cat squirms in her seat, taking hold of Dany's t-shirt to pull her closer, cupping her neck with her other hand. Dany's hand reaches across the gearbox and comes between her legs, squeezing her thigh eagerly. Catelyn groans and bites the girl's lip, finding this all hot and rough and dirty and things she hasn't felt in years. She badly wants to _touch_ , she reaches forward to try and get her hands on Daenerys' breasts, but instead she just whacks her elbow on the gearstick.

“Shit,” Cat breaks the kiss to hiss, rubbing the sore spot, and Dany seemingly can't help but giggle at her. She pouts, just a little. “You know, this might be easier in the backseat,” she points out.

Dany raises an eyebrow. “What backseat?” And Catelyn looks over her shoulder to see what passes for a backseat in this car – an absolutely tiny space, filled to overflowing with boxes, flyers, posters, a stuffed dragon toy – but even if it was empty there wouldn't be enough room to fuck.

“Alright, fair point,” she says. It might be for the best anyway. It might remind her too much of Ned. Dany laughs and takes her by the hand.

“Come here.”

Then Catelyn finds she's being guided up, over the gearbox, and into the driver seat, onto Daenerys' lap. _I'm too heavy for this,_ she thinks, but the girl doesn't complain. She has to duck her head so she won't hit it on the car roof, but she can't bring herself to protest. “There,” says Daenerys, grasping Catelyn's hips to bring her closer, “now where were we?”

Cat grins and lets their mouths come together once more, licking at Dany's lips greedily as she starts to gyrate in the girl's lap, almost like an impromptu lap dance. Dany moans and grasps her hair again, but only briefly this time. Then Catelyn feels delicate fingers popping open the buttons of her blouse.

“Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to get my hands on your tits?” Dany breaks the kiss to whisper, and Catelyn moans as the cold night air hits her bare skin. _Don't remind me that you've known me since you went through puberty._ But Dany's hands on her breasts quickly distract Catelyn from the thought. She can't get Catelyn's bra – black, professional, still fairly plain but at least a little smarter this time – off without removing her shirt properly, but she can stick her hand inside one of the cups and circle the nipple with her thumb.

Cat moans shamelessly and rocks into it, while Dany quickly pulls her hand away and grins. Cat takes hold of Dany's t-shirt and starts to push it up. Fair is fair.

Recklessly, Catelyn pulls the t-shirt off and tosses it into the passenger seat, gasping at the girl's bare chest. Dany didn't wear a bra tonight, and Cat can't help but stare at her small, perky, beautiful breasts. She licks her lips, and immediately leans down to suck a nipple into her mouth.

Dany moans and clutches her hair, urging her on. Catelyn internally curses the fact they're doing this in such a small car, because suddenly she can't think of anything more than how badly she wants to taste the girl's cunt – but there's no room. Even this is straining her neck. Still, she can touch the girl in other ways.

Softly, she runs her hand down Daenerys' bare stomach, taking a second to circle around her pierced navel. “I love this,” she pulls away to whisper, taking a second to stare at the little silver ring before burying her face in Daenerys' neck, “this looks so good on you.”

Dany chuckles. “It'd look good on you too.” If there's one thing Catelyn is definitely too old for, it's a belly button piercing, but she can't help but be flattered. So flattered she pushes her hand beneath the waist of Dany's pants – stretchy black leggings, easy to get into – and starts to rub along the wet folds.

Daenerys moans and arches up toward her, spurring Catelyn on. “A little higher,” she whispers, and Cat quickly finds her clit, rubbing in light teasing circles that all of a sudden grow hard and fast, before letting go again. She can't help but grin. She still has no idea what she's doing, but you could never tell. Daenerys's hands grasp her waist again, pulling her close, and Catelyn's skirt has long since ridden up past her waist at this point. She takes a moment to be grateful she chose to wear stockings today, not pantyhose, because that makes it easy for Daenerys to sneak two fingers under her knickers and push them into her.

“Oh!” Catelyn cries as she feels them inside, and Daenerys grins. Cat smiles in return as she starts to shift herself back and forth, fucking herself on the digit, and Dany quickly starts to slide in and out also. Cat feels a little guilty, getting Dany's fingers inside her when the angles they're at means she can't really return the favour, but she rubs Daenerys' clit extra hard to make up for it.

They gasp and moan as they keep going like this, Catelyn's eyes flickering shut in pleasure. “More,” Catelyn groans, greedy, and Dany obliges by pushing another finger deep inside her, making her cry out so loud they might hear her in the street – they might hear her in the house.

“Oh god,” she moans, spreading her legs so Daenerys can fuck her harder, and the girl leans up to whisper in her ear.

“You look so beautiful like this, Mrs. Stark. I love your hair. I love it tossing about while you ride my fingers. I want to see you like this all the time, losing your mind because I'm making you feel good. You deserve that, you deserve to feel good. I want to make you come again and again until you beg me to stop–”

Dany's thumb finds her clit and then Catelyn really does come, with a needy cry that sounds like it belongs to a girl half her age. She moans and shudders and throws herself on Dany's mercy, but she won't falter in her attentions. She keeps stroking and rubbing and flicking until Dany gasps, throws her free arm around Catelyn's neck, pulling her into another kiss before her orgasm seizes her, leaves her trembling all over. Slowly, they work each other through the aftershocks, panting into each other's mouths.

Catelyn doesn't stop until she realises how badly her wrist is starting to cramp. She sighs as she extracts it from Dany's leggings, their lips separating with a pop also.

“Well,” she says, struggling to get her breath back, “that was...”

“Incredible,” Dany finishes for her. Catelyn blushes.

“It was, wasn't it?” In truth, it's been so long since she had actual sex, she can't remember if it's usually that good. Especially in such cramped conditions. _Why must I have all my first times with people in a car?_ she wonders. Technically, she's only done it twice, but given she's only slept with two people...

Dany is still grinning, but concerns start to flood Catelyn's mind once more. She coughs. “Though, you probably shouldn't call me 'Mrs. Stark' while we're...”

“Oh,” Daenerys blinks. “Oh, of course. Sorry,” she says. “I didn't want to make you uncomfortable.”

“That's quite alright,” says Catelyn, as if it doesn't make her feel like the dirty old woman she knows she must be. She sighs and reaches for Dany's t-shirt. “Here.”

Dany takes it, but she's smirking again. “You know, I don't mind getting back in touch with nature like this,” she teases.

Catelyn rolls her eyes. “You sound like my oldest's boyfriend. Put it on, before you make me want another round.”

“Oh no, how terrible,” Daenerys drawls, and Catelyn is tempted. Sorely tempted. But then she looks out the car window to her front door.

“I should go back inside,” she murmurs. “Before the kids realise I'm...”

Beneath her, she can feel Daenerys wilt. “I understand,” says the girl, and when Catelyn looks back at her, she's pulling the shirt over her head. “They have to come first.” Catelyn nods and smiles, while Dany finishes pulling it down over her piercing. “Well. I'll see you some other time then?”

Cat grins and leans in to kiss her again – a peck, nothing more, but still. “Some other time,” she promises. Then she crawls out of Dany's lap, and her car.

She watches as the girl drives off, trying to smooth down her skirt and her sex hair. She knows that if anyone saw her right now, they could tell in an instant that she's been fucked, and fucked hard.

 


	5. Chapter 5

After that, a week or so passes and Catelyn's not sure what to do. She can hardly pretend nothing is happening anymore, but it's not like she knows how to go about making it happen again. She's not sure she should. And so inevitably, she ends up waiting for Daenerys to make the first move.

Lo and behold, she wakes up one morning and alongside the usual collection of stuff from work and her children's school, she has a text message. _hey, i finally got this essay done. wanna come over?_

_Sure,_ Catelyn immediately types in reply, then she pauses. _Or I would, if I knew where you lived._

_ill come pick u up. midnight?_

She actually has time to join her children over breakfast that morning, and so she takes a moment to check something. “Robb, are you going to be home tonight?”

He looks up from his toast and eggs puzzled. “Yeah?” he says. “Why?”

Catelyn purses her lips together, trying not to smile. “No reason.”

* * *

Robb barely goes to bed in time for her to sneak out, and he might not actually have fallen asleep, but hopefully she's subtle enough even if any of the kids are awake they won't notice. She and Daenerys share awkward smiles once she gets into the tiny car, but they don't really talk.

When they arrive at Dany's flat, Cat takes a moment to look around. It's small, as one would expect from a student resident, but rather nice – she's sure the Targaryen family fortune helped out with this place, hence why there are no roommates to get in the way.

“So,” Daenerys says, gesturing vaguely at her surroundings. “Here we are.”

“It's very nice,” Catelyn makes sure to say.

Dany raises an eyebrow. “It's very messy.” Which is true, the flat is full of haphazardly stacked biles of books, clothes discarded, dishes piling up in the sink.

“I wasn't going to mention that,” says Catelyn.

Daenerys smiles at her, and then there's an awkward pause. “So,” she says, “would you like a drink?”

“No thank you,” Cat shakes her head. If she has a drink she might end up wanting another, Dutch courage and all that, and she doesn't want to head home plastered. She has work in the morning.

Dany nods, then bites her lip. “Did you want to head straight to the bedroom then?”

Catelyn blushes like a schoolgirl. “Don't waste time, do you?” she asks.

Daenerys seems amused by her prudishness. “From what I've gathered, neither do you.” And Catelyn blushes deeper when she remembers the times she's all but thrown herself at the girl. Daenerys has a point, but somehow it's different when she's gone over to Dany's flat just for this, when there is an actual bed involved. Daenerys seems to notice her uncomfortableness. “But I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine. I wouldn't want to pressure you anything.”

“No, no I want to, it's just...” Cat sighs deeply and smiles. “I'm sorry. I'm afraid I don't really know how to do the friends-with-benefits thing yet. I mean, I married the boy I lost my virginity to.”

“Good girl gone bad, huh?” Dany teases.

“Well to be fair, I lost my virginity in the backseat of a car to my ex-boyfriend's brother,” Catelyn points out.

“You and sex in cars.”

Catelyn blushes and chuckles at that. “I'm just hoping you won't be too disappointed. Because really, what's the point of sleeping with older women if they don't know any tricks you don't?”

“You're not just any older woman though,” Daenerys says, smirking, and Catelyn's breath goes shallow as the girl slowly comes closer. “You have some unique appeal.”

Cat licks her lip as Dany teases the top button of her shirt. “So it doesn't matter us Catholic girls start much too late?” she jokes.

Daenerys pauses, and blinks at her. “Huh?”

“Oh, it's... a song from before you were born. Nevermind,” Catelyn mutters. Now she feels really old. But Daenerys doesn't seem to mind, she just smiles and goes right back to unbuttoning. The top one comes undone with a pop, and Cat gasps a little.

“So. Bed?”

Catelyn nods. “Bed.”

* * *

Daenerys' bed is narrower than she's used to, though still wide enough to fit them both comfortably, but it might not be worth the risk of tossing and turning a lot. She's quickly distracted from the fact though, with the girl's frantic mouth above her own, biting her lips and her neck, hard enough to leave marks and Catelyn wonders how she's going to explain that but she can't seem to care.

They actually manage to get all their clothes off for once. She examines Daenerys' body, slender, unmarked but for the silver piercing in her navel and dragon tattoo on her inner thigh. Cat lusts for the girl, of course she does, but she also feels a stab of insecurity over her stretchmarks, the sag of her breasts, the inches of fat from her pregnancies she's never managed to shift. Seemingly though, Daenerys notices the look on her face, and is quick to reassure her. “You're gorgeous,” she whispers in Catelyn's ear, and in the moment, Cat chooses to believe her.

She finds herself on top, which is a surprise, but she won't complain. She leans down and takes one of Dany's small, but firm and perky breasts into her mouth, sucking the nipple. Dany gasps and yanks her hair. Catelyn moves down, taking a moment to circle the girl's piercing with her tongue, relishing the metallic taste on her tongue. She's tempted to go even further down, to push her mouth between the girl's legs like she's been dreaming about, but she hesitates. She's never done that before, how would she even know what to do? And while she's hesitating, Dany pulls her back up to kiss her mouth, and Catelyn moans and gives into it.

The girl ends up tangling her legs with Cat's own, one around her thigh and one up near her waist, and Catelyn's not quite sure what she's doing until she arches her hips, until they lock together, and _oh_. Pleasure rushes up Catelyn's spine as Dany presses against her, and Dany lets out a small moan, gripping Cat's hip tight. “Come on,” she whispers as she rocks against Cat underneath her, rubbing their slits together, and Cat is helpless to do anything but echo her, thrusting down and chasing her pleasure. She moans and grasps Dany's hair for better leverage, letting the girl bruise her skin while she pulls her closer, and they rut together fast and dirty, like two animals in deeper. Cat can't think of anything more, it's just the sheer raw instinct to come, and she pushes herself as hard as she can manage onto the girl beneath her until something explodes behind her eyes. She cries out and Daenerys moans in her ear, while Cat keeps thrusting madly while she shudders through her orgasm, aching with relief.

When she finishes she all but collapses on top of poor Dany, nuzzling against the girl's breasts, small as they are, while she gets her breath back. “Thank you,” she murmurs, still panting a little.

“Don't thank me yet.” When Cat pulls her head up, she sees Daenerys grinning at her – so wide she probably does have to worry about whether the girl also finished. “I'm nowhere near down with you, Catelyn.”

“Call me Cat,” she murmurs automatically, and then wonders if whether she should have. Is she inviting the girl to get too attached? Is she getting too attached?

But Daenerys grins even wider at that, and Catelyn can't bring herself to regret it. “Cat.” Daenerys is still panting a little herself though. “I might want to go get a glass of water first, though. You don't mind?”

“Oh no, not at all.” Catelyn rolls off so Dany can slide out of bed, and she stretches out across the sheets, looking forward to another round. Unfortunately, before the girl even comes back, everything's gone black.

* * *

When she wakes, a dull glow emanates from her side. She blinks and realises it's Daenerys, who's sitting up in the bed, laptop in front of her. “What time is it?” Catelyn murmurs.

“About three AM,” Dany answers, and then turns her head, realising Cat's awake. “I hope I didn't wake you?”

Catelyn flushes, embarrassed to have fallen right asleep like the old woman she is. She could have napped at him. “No, it's fine,” she says. “It is very late though. Why are you still up?”

Daenerys shrugs. “I don't sleep very well at night. I figured I might as well use the few hours to study. I don't have class until like two in the afternoon, I can get away with it.”

Catelyn feels like she ought to criticise that line of thinking, but she's not quite comfortable playing the mother to a girl she's just had sex with, so she lets it go. She pokes her head up and peers over Dany's side, watching as she scrolls through a dull blue screen of fantasy art and nature photography, mostly of fire, with the odd extremely long and basically illegible rant thrown in. She raises an eyebrow. “That sure looks like studying to me,” she says.

Dany laughs. “Alright, you got me. I'm just on tumblr.” Catelyn's sure Sansa's said that word to her before, but she has no idea what it means. Still, she's a bit too embarrassed to ask. “But to be fair, I don't have my next test for like a week. I have some time left to procrastinate.”

“If you say so,” Cat murmurs, her eyes starting to slide shut again. “It's late. I should go hope.” She tries valiantly to extract herself from the bed, but ultimately fails, overwhelmed by soft pillows and warm blankets. She groans. “You live in a cheap student's flat. Why is your bed so comfy?”

“Wise investment,” says Daenerys. Then, Catelyn feels soft fingers stroking through her hair. “Aren't you always having to get up at five in the morning for work anyway? Stay the night. I can lend you clothes for work, and I'm sure your children won't notice the difference.” Dany pauses. “You look like you could use the sleep.”

Catelyn opens her eyes again. She's not sure if that's genuinely a good argument or if she's just tired, but either way, she's tempted. But looking over Daenerys' body next to her, breasts poking out shamelessly above the duvet, she's tempted in other ways too.

“One thing first,” she says, slowly sliding the laptop out from Daenerys' hands and closing it, letting it rest on the bedside table. “I'd feel disappointed if I left without doing this once.”

Dany seems puzzled at first, but when she sees Catelyn snaking her way down the bed, crawling between her legs, she smiles.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Work proves surprisingly easy afterward. People notice she's a bit tired, but they're mostly understanding about it. Sometimes she notices people giving her weird smiles, and then she blushes when she realises they can probably tell she's gotten laid, and they're happy for her. Jaime from the front office idly comments that her blouse (or rather, Daenerys' blouse) looks a little small, at which Catelyn just walks away. She tries not to talk to Jaime from the front office much.

When she gets home, she expects to have to make excuses, to have her absence noticed, but none of her children say anything, they just ask her how work was and then move on to what they usually do. They must have genuinely not realised she snuck out last night. Catelyn's not sure whether to be relieved or a little annoyed.

Cat sighs as she makes a cup of tea and broods over her kitchen table. _Am I really getting away with this?_

* * *

It's probably foolish to go buy herself new underwear just because she has someone to show it off to now. But, she reasons, most of her underwear was getting old and overstretched and in need of replacement anyway, she just never got around to going shopping. A little extra motivation is no crime, and anyway, it's not like she's going to buy anything terribly impractical.

She comes home with a bag full of black lace, stockings and suspenders, and buries her face in her pillow.

She sighs and opens her phone once more, taking a look at the photos she took in the changeroom. _The phrase 'mutton dressed as lamb' springs to mind._ Still, she can't say she looks horrible in them. If Daenerys did see, Catelyn imagines her all but gushing, for she has never seemed to think Cat looks as old as she thinks she does.

Cat bites her lip.

Decision made, she slowly closes her door, hoping she won't draw any of the children's attention. Hurriedly, before she's needed to go do something else, she changes into some of her favourite pieces she bought – a translucent black lace thong and bra to match, her nipples raising up in the cold autumn air. She wears long black stockings with seams down the back and elastic tops, for she can't be bothered with the garter belt right now. She bites her lip as she examines herself in the mirror. _I look like a fool,_ she thinks, but she can't fight the niggling suspicion that she also looks pretty good.

She reaches for her phone and takes a photo. It's hard not to flinch when she looks at it though. Her belly bulges out over the lace waistband, her stretchmarks are there for all to see. _Am I just being silly?_ she wonders. Perhaps she should put back on her regular underwear, delete the photo and forget all about it.

But she can't shake the thought Daenerys would not approve. First of all, the girl has rarely passed up an opportunity to see her undressed so far, and furthermore... she imagines Dany would tell her, if she wanted to dress up in sexy black lingerie, she should, and to hell with her stretchmarks. That seems like the sort of girl she is.

Catelyn ends up taking a lot of photos, contorting herself into absurd positions, almost spraining her wrist at one point. Still, it's surprisingly fun, lounging about like she's in a music video. She does have to try to keep her giggles under control, lest the children wonder what she's playing at.

She only gets about three photos that are good enough to send, most of them are too blurry. Still, Cat sends her three good shots along, and then bites her lip as she waits for a response. _She won't reply right away,_ she tells herself. _She's probably busy. It's the middle of the day, she might have class._ She pauses. It's a Saturday.

The reply comes approximately two minutes later. _wow!! you look amazing. what did I do to deserve this?_

 _Just felt like spoiling you, that's all._ Then Cat pauses, erases 'you', and writes 'me' in its place. Then she pauses again, before adding '/you' after.

_well im grateful. hey, im at a demo right now, cant really talk, but want to come over & show me those in person tonite?_

Cat smiles to herself. _I'll check my schedule._

_see u then ;)_

After that, Cat gets dressed again and goes back into the house, but she keeps her new underwear on underneath.

* * *

They've been having their affair, or whatever she should call it, for a few weeks before she can no longer resist the impulse to snoop in Daenerys' drawers while she's in the shower. She's nosy. It's a flaw.

Most of what she finds isn't that surprising, condoms and cheap jewellery and textbooks and flyers, a lot of flyers. Dany seems to be involved in just about every cause Catelyn's ever heard of, from animal rights to feminism to climate change, and a few causes she's not heard of either. Best not to mention that. Still, it's likely none of her business. She does smile when she looks in the top drawer and sees that bracelet she bought the girl though.

When she looks in the bottom drawer–

_Well._

She shouldn't be surprised to find sex toys. Daenerys is a liberated young woman, it would be a surprise if she didn't own any. Perhaps, Catelyn thinks guiltily, she was hoping to find them, so she wouldn't have to bring up the subject herself.

She just wasn't expecting to find so _many_. They barely fit in the drawer. There's your traditional dildos and vibrators of course, of a wide array of sizes and colours, as well as plugs and clasps and other things Catelyn's not sure she knows the name for, as well as some sort of harness that – well, she can _guess_ what that's for. And she doesn't mean to be a prude, but well, the girl's only a few years out of high school, for goodness' sake.

 _You're the one sleeping with her,_ Catelyn thinks. That is a major blow to her ability to be scandalised about anything. And it's not like she's closed the drawer in horror, no she's staring at them, curious. They say that killed the cat. Still, most of these she can understand pretty intuitively, but others just leave her bewildered.

Then something catches her eye. It's a striking bright yellow, it would be hard for it not to. At first, Cat assumes it's just another dildo, albeit on the larger side, but when she gingerly – perhaps unnecessarily gingerly, given she's touched Daenerys' vagina directly quite a few times by now – extracts it from the drawer, she can only blink. It doesn't look like any penis, nor any sex toy she's ever seen before. It looks like _a_ penis, but bizarrely curved and ridged, like something out of some strange fantasy erotica. Perhaps more importantly, it's _huge_. Easily as long as her forearm. Dany is so small, could she even use something like this?

“I was wondering when you'd find those.”

Cat jumps and finds Daenerys has returned to the bed, hair wrapped up in a towel but apart from that, totally naked. She blushes and starts hurriedly returning things to their proper place. “So sorry, I was just–”

“Snooping,” Dany grins at her. “Don't worry, I'm nosy as fuck, I get it.” Catelyn sighs deeply. She's still terribly embarrassed, but at least the girl isn't upset with her. “So, did you find anything you liked?”

Catelyn blushes even deeper and hesitates before she answers. “I – mostly found things that confused me, truth be told,” she says, and Daenerys raises an eyebrow. Cat grabs the strange yellow dildo again and holds it up. “Like this. This is... strange.”

Danerys plucks it out of her hand, and unusually for her, seems a little bashful. “Alright, that one I mostly got as a joke,” she says. “You know my thing about dragons, right? Well there's this website that makes dragon-themed sex toys. I was at a party once and some of my friends insisted I should get one. I was drunk enough it seemed like a good idea.”

“I see,” says Catelyn. She's not sure who buys dildos at a party, or tells their friends they ought to by a dildo at a party, but she supposes that is just another of the ways in which she and Daenerys are very different. She pauses. “Wait, how do you make dragon-themed sex toys anyway? Dragons don't exist. How does anyone know what their penises would look like?”

“Power of imagination?” Dany shrugs. “Anyway, I've never actually been able to use the damn thing. I've tried a couple of times – curious, that and the damn thing was like ninety quid, I feel I ought to get my money's worth – but it's never fitted. My friends insisted I get the biggest one they had.”

“Hmm,” Cat says as she eyes it, chewing her lip once more. “I mean, it can't be impossible. They wouldn't sell it if it was. And it's _big,_ but it's not bigger than a baby. I suppose it's just a matter of stretching yourself enough...” she trails off. She has considerably wider hips than Daenerys, though she blushes to think of such a thing.

“You almost sound curious.” When Catelyn looks up and meets Dany's eye again, the girl is smirking and has her eyebrows raised.

Cat blushes and hurriedly returns the toy to its drawer. _No, of course not,_ is what she ought to say, but instead what comes out is “I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet.”

“Fair enough,” says Dany before Catelyn can really think through what she's just said, the implications of that statement. “But still. Did you find anything you think you are ready for?”

Cat bites her lip as she returns to staring into the drawer, weighing her options. Another toy catches her eye – black silicone, smooth. It's nowhere near as big as the other one, but it's still thick and long, maybe a bit over nine inches. She picks it up and weighs it in her hand.

“Size queen,” Dany teases.

Cat almost drops the thing in shock. “I am not,” she says, hurriedly returning the girl's gaze and doing her best to glower even when she's going as red as a fire engine. “I'm just...”

She trails off. She doesn't really have a good excuse. Ned was a little over the average, apparently, but nothing record-shattering. It's not like she has a vast knowledge of all the cocks of the world so she can know for sure how she likes them. She's just turned on by the thought of a big one. Maybe she is a size queen. She blushes deeper and averts her eyes.

“Hey, hey, it's alright,” and when Cat meets Dany's eye again, she can see the girl looks genuinely concerned. She swings her legs over the side of the bed and leans toward Cat, gently grasping her shoulder. “I was only teasing. It's not a problem. What you want in your vagina is your own damn business, and if you're going to let me be the one putting it in you, then I should hardly be complaining.”

Catelyn blushes even deeper at that, but despite herself, she smiles. Dany does have a way of putting her neuroses and lingering Catholic guilt at ease. “You don't think it's cheating then?” she asks, half-joking, and then it's Dany's turn to look bewildered. Cat sighs. “It's just, if I'm going to have sex with another woman, it seems almost against the point to have fake phallus there as well.”

Dany scoffs. “What, do you think they'll revoke our license to have girl-on-girl sex if we don't do it right?” No, of course not, that's absurd. But Catelyn doesn't want Dany to think of her as boxed in by her alleged straightness, by devotion to the idea that sex must revolve around the penis. She's not quite the liberated Millenial the girl she's sleeping with is, but she likes to think she's a little more forward than that. “We don't have to fuck with toys all the time, but that doesn't mean they can't be nice sometimes. I mean, would I own so many if I didn't think that?” Admittedly, that is a hard argument to rebut. Dany chuckles and squeezes her shoulder. “Now c'mon. Grab that dildo and my harness, and I'll see what I can do.”

Catelyn smirks, amused, and gives a little salute. “Yes ma'am.”

About ten minutes later, Catelyn's flat on her back with her legs spread wide, letting Dany plow her senseless with that black dildo strapped between her legs, and it's hard to remember why she was ever worried about this. “Yes, yes!” she screams, tossing and turning and making a mess of her hair, arching and bucking underneath, trying to force even more of that fake cock into her. “Oh god,” she moans, as the thing goes so deep, stretches her so wide, and she has missed this. She's not had anything as long or as thick in her since Ned died.

Above her, Daenerys is grinning. “You like that, do you?” she whispers, nipping Catelyn's bottom lip as she drives into her faster, making her shriek in pleasure. There's pain somewhere in it to, but Cat can't seem to mind even when she notices, and is that what makes a size queen? “You like by big cock in you. Come on, Cat, take it, take it hard.”

Suddenly the girl grabs her wrists and pins them to the bed, making her gasp, and Catelyn seems unable to do anything but take it. She sighs and squirms and wraps her legs around Dany's slim waist, holding on until the girl pushes her past the peak of her pleasure.

Once they're done, Dany tosses the toy and harness aside and starts curling into her arms. “I hope I didn't go too far,” she says, and exhausted as she is, Catelyn's not entirely sure what she's talking about. “But I thought you liked it. I think you woke all my neighbours.”

Sleepy and sweat-soaked, Cat leans over to softly kiss the girl's lips. “To hell with the neighbours,” she whispers, and they both giggle.

* * *

She insists on actually returning home that night, although she does not wake up until it's almost five in the morning. She slides her key in her front door, and then creeps into the front room as softly as she can, hoping not to wake any of the children.

“Hi, Mum,” two voices ring out in unison.

Catelyn frowns and pokes her head through the kitchen doorway to see Arya and Sansa sitting across the table, in their pyjamas, mugs of cocoa and a packet of biscuits between them. “Hi,” she says suspiciously, unsure whether she should be angry or alarmed. “It's five in the morning. Why are you two awake?”

“We're on a stakeout,” Arya tells her, and Sansa gives her sister a withering look.

“Don't call it a stakeout. It's a reconnaissance mission.”

“That's just a stakeout in French!”

Catelyn sighs. “What on Earth could you two possibly be staking out?”

“See,” Arya says, but Sansa ignores her, instead turning to Catelyn with a grin.

“You have a boyfriend,” she declares.

Catelyn's eyes go wide and she turns red. “I – I do not!” she says, which is not technically lie. “I was just–”

“Mum, we don't mind,” Arya interjects before she can think of an excuse. “Actually I'm glad. Robb owes me a tenner now.”

Sansa turns to glare at her again. “Robb owes _us_ a tenner,” she insists. “That we agreed to split fifty-fifty. He owes _you_ a fiver.”

Arya rolls her eyes dramatically, and then ignores that interjection. Really, Catelyn ought to talk to her children about gambling, not mention gambling over her sex life, but she thinks she's a bit too tired and guilty to manage it right now. “Anyway, the point is: it's fine, I just need to know where this guy lives so I can go put the fear of God into him.”

Catelyn bites her lip. Really, she thinks her children have had enough time to move on from Ned's death, and it would be fine if she was simply dating again. But instead she's having a torrid sexual affair with their favourite cousin's barely legal aunt. Who wants to think their mother capable of that?

“There is no 'guy',” she says. “I simply couldn't sleep, so I went out for a drive to clear my head,” she lies. She supposes if you're going to have a secret affair, at some point, you _have_ to lie. “You're both too old and too mature to get embroiled in these sorts of shenanigans.” And really, she's one to talk. “Now off to bed with both of you. You have school tomorrow.”

Arya and Sansa sigh and hurriedly finish their cocoa, while Cat puts the biscuits away. When they trudge up the stairs they're sharing smirks, clearly having not believed a word she said. Cat raises an eyebrow at them, standing proud and intimidating until they're gone, and then sighing in defeat. When she tries to go upstairs herself, she has to stop for a second, still shaky on her feet – not to mention the ache between her legs.

So this can only possibly end well.

 


	7. Chapter 7

One night she's at Dany's flat, it's about two in the morning, and she's lying on her back getting her breath back in between rounds, while Dany traces circles around her navel. Catelyn chuckles and squirms a little. “That tickles,” she points out.

“Oh?” Dany asks, and then does it harder, making Catelyn bat her away playfully. Daenerys laughs and presses a brief kiss to Cat's hipbone. Then she pauses and looks up at her. “Cat, can I ask you something?”

She's not sure when Daenerys started calling her Cat, but given she's been calling the girl Dany in her head for months now, it's only fair. “Of course,” she says quietly, and mentally she adds _sweetheart._

Daenerys bites her lip, uncharacteristically nervous. Catelyn grows a little nervous herself, worried it's going to be something about their families or other things she doesn't want to think about right now. Instead what she gets is: “would you let me tie you up?”

Cat blinks, and as soon as she processes the words, she starts blushing. “Er...”

“I don't want you to feel like you have to,” Daenerys quickly reassures her. “It's not for everyone. If it's not your sort of thing, fine, we never talk about it again. But...” She purses her lips together. “Well. It's _my_ sort of thing.”

“...I see,” Catelyn says breathlessly, and an involuntary shudder goes through her at the thought of Daenerys with the rope in hand, smirking as she ties Catelyn to the bed. “Well, I won't say I'm –completely disinterested,” she says hesitantly. “But I'll admit, I've not done it before. I'm not sure I know the rules.”

“Well, if you're the one tied up, it's probably more important for _me_ to know the rules,” says Daenerys, and Catelyn is faintly embarrassed again, that she is so much less experienced than this girl half her age. It's not as if she's never thought about such things, never considered asking Ned if they couldn't experiment more widely, but she never got around to it. She never seemed to have the time. “Although I would need you to remember your safeword.”

Catelyn pulls a face. “Is that really necessary?” She knows this is a bit of kink, but well, bondage is the sort of thing they make jokes about on sitcoms. Having a safeword makes it seem more important somehow, like she's pushing herself further than she thought she was, like it says something about her.

Daenerys gives her a scalding look. “ _Yes_.” And Catelyn feels like a little girl told off by her governess. She averts her eyes, and Dany sighs. “I won't take risks with your safety, Cat. If you don't want to–”

“I want to,” Cat blurts out, and Dany blinks in surprise. Cat's a little surprised herself. She's not sure when she went from being curious to being certain. “I just – well. I don't want to disappoint you.”

Dany smiles softly, runs a hand through her hair. “You won't disappoint me,” she says, and Catelyn feels her heart skip a beat. _Oh dear._ “Do you trust me?”

Cat nods. “Yes.” _Of course._ “So, should we...?”

“I meant at some point,” Dany says, “we don't have to do it right now.”

Catelyn is embarrassed. _Oh, of course,_ she means to say and then to forget about it until Daenerys next brings it up. But then she becomes oddly brave. “Well, you've put the thought in my head now,” she teases. “I'm not sure I'll be able to think about anything else now...”

Dany turns and looks at her curiously, and then, she smirks. “Oh, is that so?” she asks, her voice dropping low. “Okay. Wait there.”

Catelyn does so, while Dany gets up and fetches something out of a drawer. She comes back with two silk scarves in hand. “If it's your first time, we'll start with something soft,” she says, and Catelyn nods along, conceding to the girl's expertise. “Did you think of a safeword? Because if you can't come up with anything, there's the red yellow green system–”

“No. No, I thought of something,” says Cat, grinning. “Heathcliff.”

A pause, and then Dany bursts out laughing. “Oh, if my brother were here,” she says, and Catelyn laughs along with her. “Well then. Are you ready?”

Cat's breath goes shallow with nerves as Daenerys moves to straddle her, but she nods. “I think so.”

Dany raises an eyebrow. “Hands up.”

Catelyn instinctively raises her hands up toward the headboard, and Daenerys smiles as she wraps one of her scarves around Cat's wrist. It's blue, and the fabric feels soft and gentle, yet strong, against Cat's skin. Much like it's owner does. Dany straddles Cat's thigh as she binds her loosely to the headboard, loosely enough Cat could possibly just slip out if she wanted to. But, looking up at the navy silk enveloping her wrist, she finds she doesn't want to. When Dany ties the knot and lets go, Catelyn moans aloud.

“Like that?” Dany asks with a chuckle, and then leans down to nip at Catelyn's neck, making her gasp. She then grabs the second scarf, red in colour, and binds Cat properly with even more practiced efficiency.

Dany pulls back once she's done, looking over Cat thoroughly, and Cat blushes to be restrained and examined. She squirms a little, feeling the silk pull at her skin. “You've practiced that,” she says.

Daenerys just shrugs, but she can't keep from grinning for long. “So?”

Cat bites her lip. So indeed. “So what happens now?” she asks, breathless.

Dany grins wider. “Oh, wouldn't you like to know,” she teases, and Cat feels her pulse start to race. “But don't worry. You'll find out. Just relax. Close your eyes.”

It's like she's helpless to resist, like by binding her this way Daenerys has bound her to her will also. Cat closes her eyes and then waits, waits for the girl to do something. For a very long moment, nothing happens. “Dany–?”

“Shh,” the girl tells her. Then Catelyn gasps as she feels something, no more than one finger, start to circle her clit. “Patience.”

Catelyn moans softly as Daenerys strokes her back and forth, finding her still wet and sensitive from their last round. Cat arches under the touch, and then Dany pulls away, drying her finger on Catelyn's thigh. Cat can't help making a disappointed noise, and Dany laughs.

Before she knows it though, Cat can feel the girl shift, and before she knows it there's a head between her legs, lapping at her. “Oh!” she cries out and instinctively, she tries to grab Dany's hair – but of course she can't. _Oh_. She bites her lip. “Dany,” she whispers as the girl sucks her clit, “can I open my eyes now?”

There's a pause as Daenerys stops, leans up. “If you like,” she says, and Cat does open her eyes to see the girl smirking at her. “I thought you would have opened them before now. If I wanted to blindfold you, I would have blindfolded you.”

Cat blushes, but she doesn't get time to think about it before Dany returns to sliding her tongue between her folds, making her feel incapable of doing anything but moaning and writhing toward her. When Daenerys pushes her tongue _into_ her, fucking her with it, Catelyn cries out and almost pulls the scarves loose.

Dany hums as she pulls back. “Do you like that?” she asks. “Do you want me to fuck you with my mouth?”

“Yes,” Cat whispers, just in case it wasn't clear. Dany hovers but an inch from her, not touching her, but the feel of her hot breath against her cunt drives Cat crazy.

Dany leans over and bites the inside of Cat's thigh. Cat gasps and arches off the bed again. “Beg me,” she says.

A shudder ripples through Cat's whole body. She can't even bring herself to be surprised by the request – by the command. “Oh please,” she moans, “please, fuck me with your mouth.”

Dany grins and returns her tongue to where it was, driving it hard and fast into Cat's slit, making her shout then whimper. Before long she can feel two fingers in there too, making her cry out as Dany stretches her, and she sticks her legs up ridiculously so she can offer more of herself. “Oh – oh fuck – more – please, more–”

Dany pauses, and removes her tongue, instead adding a third finger. “More?” she asks, wiping the wetness off her lips, while Cat all but screams, tossing and turning as she spreads her legs wider. “You want three fingers in your greedy cunt?”

Cat moans as Dany fucks her hard with her three fingers, and she knows she shouldn't, but she's so exposed and Dany now has her free hand underneath her knee, helping her expose herself further. Cat's thoughts turn filthy. “Oh – please,” she begs, and then she bites her lip.

“What? What is it?” Daenerys is probably thinking she ought to break out the toys about now.

Catelyn lets out a shuddering breath, and tries to bury her nerves. “Please, finger my arse.”

Dany blinks at first, and Cat is almost proud, that she actually managed to surprise the girl for once. But she's also worried. Still, Dany quickly processes, and smiles. “Okay. Give me a second.” And Cat groans as her fingers disappear, leaving her empty, but she soon realises Dany is just fetching a bottle of lubricant from her top drawer, squirting it generously onto her fingers, already wet with Cat's fluids.

She expects more warning than she gets – it's only a few seconds before Daenerys has a finger sliding down the cleft of her arse, circling, teasing. Cat gasps a little, rocks back into the bed. They lock eyes for a moment, and Cat nods.

Dany's finger pushes inside her and Cat lets out a noise of shock, rushed with sensation – pain and pleasure and the guilty thrill she gets from how dirty it is. It's been a long time since she's taken anything up her arse. “Do you like that?” Daenerys whispers in her ear as she pushes her finger in deeper, crooking it inside, and Cat moans softly and nods again. Dany grins and gets braver, moving her finger faster and deeper, and Cat squirms to try and get more – while also trying to squeeze her legs together to relieve the ache in her cunt. Which is tricky when Dany is kneeling between them. Instinctively, she wants to reach down and rub between her legs, but the silk holds her tight.

Daenerys is still grinning, fingering Catelyn's arse and not touching her anywhere else, and Cat almost wants to sob. _She'll make me beg._ “Touch me,” she gasps, not really expecting it to be that easy.

The girl raises an eyebrow, and then without warning, she adds a second finger in Cat's arse. Cat cries out, and that is not what she meant but still, the added stretch, the added sense of fullness, only makes the throb between her legs worse. “Oh please,” she moans, her pride breaking once more, “touch my cunt again.”

Daenerys chuckles and says nothing, but she leans down, returning her mouth to the folds of Cat's cunt and Cat all but screams when she feels the girl's tongue circling her sensitive nub again. Dany hums as she sucks Cat's clit, making her twist and turn against her restraints, and then traces the length of Cat's slit once, slowly, deliberately, while her fingers move in and out of Cat's arse at a punishing pace. Even tied down, unable to do anything but take it, Cat feels like she can barely keep up. When Dany pushes her tongue back inside her again, fucks her with it again, Cat moans and locks her thighs around the girl's neck, thrusting up shamelessly, wantonly. “Do you want this?” Dany asks, her breath hot against Cat's folds. “Do you want me to fuck you in both holes?”

“Oh yes, yes,” Cat moans, throwing her head back and letting her eyes drift shut, barely registering what the the question is. It feels like she'd let the girl do anything to her. Then Dany pulls back further, and Cat's about to protest when she feels something – thin, cool and firm – pushing inside her.

She opens her eyes and looks down to see a toy, a small pink vibrator – bullet she believes is the word – buried between her legs, Dany pushing it as far as it will go. Catelyn doesn't know how she got it at first, but then she remembers it's the same toy they used before, the one Dany fucked herself with while she ate Cat out, and they just didn't bother to put it away, and Cat moans at the feeling of being filled, and the guilty thrill of being fucked with the same toy the girl just had inside her.

She's not expecting it when Dany actually turns the thing on. “Fuck!” she shouts, and starts twisting and turning again, her bound hands grasping helplessly at nothing. The toy isn't built to tease; what it lacks in size it makes up in sheer raw power, and it rocks her to her core. “Fuck, fuck, god, jesus, fuck...” she chants, lost to sensation.

Dany chuckles again, either out of amusement with Cat's desperation or because the feel of the vibrator against her fingers through Catelyn's walls might tickle. “It's good, isn't it?” she asks cheerily. “I want to hear you scream. I want you to come so hard you think you're dying, and I want you to scream my name.”

“Dany,” Cat gasps, not sure she has enough breath left in her lungs to scream. She moans at the feeling of the vibrator working on her while Daenerys fucks her with her fingers, and she knows she's trembling, close to the edge, but it's still somehow not enough. “Oh – fuck, touch me, fuck–”

“Where?” Dany asks, which is not an unreasonable question. “Do you want more fingers?” Suddenly, there's a third finger in Cat's arse, and she yelps. “Do you need a bigger toy?” Cat moans and squeezes her legs together, and why must it be so hard to say what she wants? “Or do you need me to touch your clit? Do you want to come now, baby?”

“Fuck, yes!” Cat shouts as she thrashes against the bed. “Touch my clit, make me come, fuck just – Dan–”

And Dany's thumb finds her clit, barely rubbing it twice before the end of her name gets swallowed in a ridiculous cry, loud enough to wake all their neighbours but Cat can't bring herself to care, she screams and lets herself be swamped by it, forgetting to worry about the age difference or her children or Jon or what Ned would have thought or anything.

It takes her awhile to come back to herself, as Dany removes her fingers from Cat's arse and switches the vibrator off, but leaves it in place. Cat soon realises Daenerys is above her, face barely an inch away, and is gently stroking her cheek. Cat tries to return the gesture, but then remembers her hands are still tied. She lets out a little huff of frustration, and Dany laughs before kissing her briefly. “Are you okay?” she asks and Cat, while still hazy and panting for breath a little, nods. “Do you want me to untie you now?”

Cat shakes her head. Dany seems surprised. “I want to see you come first.”

There's a pause, and then Dany grins again. “Oh?” she asks. “How am I meant to do that then?”

Cat, as best she can with her arms still tied above her head, shrugs as if to say _that's up to you._

She quickly finds herself with the girl above her again, riding her face, yanking hard at Catelyn's hair as she rocks back and forth, forcing Cat's tongue into her harder, deeper. Cat moans at the taste that fills her mouth, the salt and sweetness, strong and powerful and distinctly female. _A few months ago I thought I was straight,_ and she giggles at the absurdity of the whole situation, which only makes Dany moan and thrust down onto her faster. Usually, Cat would grab the girl by the hips to urge her on, to get more of her taste, but right now she can't do anything but put her tongue where Dany tells her to. She still only half knows what she's doing, but as she listens to Daenerys moan and curse, whispering to her _that's good, just like that, fuck,_ before her body seizes up and she lets out a wild moan as she comes across Catelyn's chin, Cat feels an inexplicable surge of pride.

Afterward, Dany finally unties her, and Cat rubs her wrist as they settle in bed next to each other. “They're a little red, but there shouldn't be any bruising,” Dany says as she looks down at Catelyn's wrists too. Cat bites her lip. She should be relieved she won't have to explain that away (even if she doubts any explanation would be believed), but instead she's faintly disappointed. “How are your shoulders?”

Cat rolls them experimentally. “Fine, I think. Maybe a little sore,” she says. Dany nods.

“And you?” she asks. “How are you feeling?”

Cat bites her lip. That's a trickier question to answer. “I could do with some water?” she suggests.

“One second,” says Dany, and before Cat knows it the girl has picked a waterbottle up off the floor and handed it to her. Cat blinks, surprised, but she really is parched and so she takes a long gulp. Afterward, she hands it back to Dany who places it on the bedside table. Then they stare at each other again. Dany sighs. “Come here.”

Catelyn's surprised when she's suddenly pulled into Daenerys' embrace, arms wrapping firmly around her shoulders and gently massaging the sore muscles, but she quickly concedes to it, nuzzling into the girl's neck, as foolish as she might feel to cling like a child to a woman half her age. She supposes this is what they call aftercare. That thought gives her a strange mix of feelings she can't quite explain.

“I'm sorry if I went a little far,” Dany murmurs, and kisses Cat's brow. “I know you're not really used to the kink thing. I can get a bit out of hand sometimes.”

“I enjoyed it,” Cat answers. There's a pause, and then Catelyn looks up to meet Dany's eye again, smiling bashfully. “Really, I'm – surprised how much I enjoyed it.”

“...Oh,” says Dany. Then she shrugs. “I mean, I guess that makes sense. You have to the mother and responsible for everyone and everything all the time. I'd understand you wanting someone else to be control.”

Catelyn opens her mouth, almost annoyed to be so easily pigeonholed, but the more she thinks about it that does make a lot of sense. _That, and when I feel like she's in control I feel a lot less guilty._ She huffs slightly. “Alright. What's your pop psychology explanation, then?”

Dany takes a moment to think this over. “Broken home, I think,” she says. “Confusing family situation. Means I like a sense of control.”

That also makes a certain degree of sense. Cat just sighs and leans back into Dany's neck, letting the girl run her fingers through her red hair. “It's sort of a shame I can't tell Rhaegar about your safeword though,” she comments. “His head might explode.”

Cat laughs at that. “Your brother and I have an agreement. We're both entitled to our opinions on _Wuthering Heights,_ we just won't talk about them.”

“Why do you guys fight so much about that book, anyway?” Dany asks, and Cat looks up at her. “I mean, I haven't read it, so I wouldn't know. But you both seem to like the book, so...?”

“We do,” Cat says hesitantly, and then bites her lip. “We just interpret it differently. It's... stupid.” Dany just raises an eyebrow, as if to say _try me._ Cat sighs. “Look, your brother is a romantic. He always has been. And he reads it as just that: a romance. Whereas I... can't.”

Dany nods along. “Okay,” she says. “But: why?”

And there's a lot of things Cat could say here, she could construct an actual literary argument about Emily Bronte's intentions and whatnot, but instead what she blurts out is: “I had a foster brother growing up.”

Dany tilts her head to the side, and Catelyn bites her lip. She's not sure she's really explained this to anyone – not even Ned; she told him what she thought he needed to know, when she was worried about Sansa, but she never really _explained_. Still, she's started now, and she can hardly stop. “As kids, we were all very close,” she says. “But as he got older... I don't know. I came from a rich family, and he started to envy us, I think? He wanted what we had, but thought he couldn't get it, he wanted everything... but he wanted me most of all.”

She pauses, and Dany stares at her, gobsmacked. “Catelyn...”

“I mean, it wasn't like he ever did anything to me,” Cat quickly reassures her. “He wouldn't dare. But still. I tried making it clear to him that I wasn't interested, at all, he was like a brother to me, but somehow it was like it that didn't matter. I was a symbol, of everything he'd been denied by right of birth. Who I was as a person was secondary at best.”

Dany nods sympathetically. “So what happened?”

“He married my sister.”

That detail clearly takes Dany by surprise as much as it did Cat back then. “...Okay,” she says, bewildered. “Is that legal?”

“Presumably?” Really, as a lawyer, Cat should be more certain. “I mean, it wasn't a formal adoption. Although he was with us a long time – about seven years.” She pauses. “Look, I'm probably a horrible egotist for thinking this, I should think he and Lysa are happy together, but... even after he married her, he used to stare at me, like... like he was chasing after a ghost. And when Sansa started growing up, and she looked so much like me, I...” Cat sighs deeply. “I don't see my sister all that much anymore.”

For a long time, Daenerys says nothing, she simply keeps stroking Cat's hair and offering silent sympathy. After a minute or so, however, she does add something. “So... what does this have to do with _Wuthering Heights_?”

Cat lets out a small laugh at that. “In _Wuthering Heights_ , Heathcliff destroys the lives of everyone he knows of spite that they wouldn't let him have his noble foster sister, the woman who embodies everything he's denied by right of birth,” she explains. “I mean, the situations aren't all that similar, but I can't read it as romantic – because part of me worries in some other world... that could have happened to the people I know. The people I love.” She pauses. “I know how completely stupid that sounds–”

“It doesn't sound stupid,” Dany tells her.

Catelyn's left staring at her again, and it strikes her how strange this is. To actually talk about something like this. She was afraid if she ever explained what happened with Petyr, to the extent she even understands what happened with Petyr, everyone would just thing she was paranoid, and self-obsessed. But Daenerys believes her, and offers her nothing but sympathy.

Slowly, Catelyn leans in for another kiss. Dany kisses her back. It's not a prelude to sex like it normally is, it's soft and chaste, the way she used to kiss Ned before falling asleep. And at the back of her mind, Cat knows that should worry her.

 


	8. Chapter 8

On the list of things she saw coming, having to spend yet more time with the Targaryen family should be there, and yet when she and her children are invited to Rhaella's fifty-eighth birthday dinner, she's caught entirely off-guard. Jon delivers the invitation this time, not Dany, and Catelyn tries not to blush as she smiles and says that would be lovely, they'd all be delighted to go. She's not seen the rest of Dany's family since that barbecue, and she's not seen Rhaella in maybe a year now.

It's awkward to say the least; it's hard not to think of Dany as just a girl when her mother is sitting right there, smoothing down her hair, and Catelyn feels more guilty than ever. Even though she knows technically Rhaella is old enough to be her mother as well – indeed she's a few years younger than Rhaegar. Still, Catelyn's self-aware to realise that if a woman her age was dallying with one of her children, she'd probably sock said woman in the jaw.

Margaery and Theon aren't here for once, the table is too crowded as is, so her children are all crowded around their cousin Jon a little way down. “We know she's seeing someone,” Cat overhears Robb whispering conspiratorially, while Bran looks around suspiciously. “We just have to figure out who.”

“You did not know,” Arya points out, and holds up a five pound note, “remember?”

Robb rolls his eyes. “Well, I know now,” he says. “Anyway, that's not the point. The point is we're checking if anyone's noticed any suspicious behaviour.”

Cat can feel the colour draining from her face. _Oh fuck._ It's not enough that her children are on the lookout for whoever she's sleeping with, now they're on the lookout when the girl she is sleeping with is barely more than a metre away, and they're sharing their suspicions with said girl's nephew. Who also happens to be her nephew. At the very least, Daenerys herself hasn't noticed, she's too busy sketching something on a napkin for Rhaenys.

Jon seems bemused. “I see your mother, what, once every three weeks? Why would I have noticed anything?”

Her children all share awkward looks, and then shrug, as if to say 'alright, fair point'. Catelyn gulps. _Yes, but how often do you see your aunt by blood?_ Jon sighs heavily. “You haven't considered that your mother might tell you about this person when she'd ready, have you?”

“Yeah, but where's the fun in that?” Rickon asks, and Sansa glares while Bran hurriedly shushes him, lest she overhear (none of them seem to have noticed her eavesdropping, which is a relief).

“Look, clearly she's keeping this secret for a reason,” says Sansa, and Catelyn thinks _oh you have no idea._ “She clearly thinks we're not ready for her to date again after Dad, and we have to prove that we are, that we can be mature and responsible–”

“By spying?” asks Jon.

“We want to be sure she won't get hurt, Jon,” says Robb. “I mean this guy could be anyone–”

“Robb, your mother's thirty-eight. You can probably trust her to make her own decisions.” _You have more faith in me than you ought to, dear boy._

Suddenly, Bran's eyes go wide as he finally notices his mother constantly looking at them.

“Guys!” he whispers and elbows Robb in the ribs, then they all fall silent and drop their eyes to the table, not even slightly suspiciously.

“Catelyn?” A soft voice rings out from her side, and Cat turns to see Elia, staring at her with concern. “Are you feeling alright? You look rather flushed.”

Catelyn only flushes deeper at that. “Oh, I'm alright. Just feeling a little hot, that's all.” They're in a crowded restaurant, after all, and Cat half-wishes she was a smoker so she'd have an excuse to get out of their. After a few moments more awkwardness, she thinks _fuck it._ “I might step outside for a second, get some fresh air.”

Elia nods and Cat gets up, refusing to look back at either her children or her lover.

* * *

She shivers on the side of the pavement, for it will be winter soon and she didn't bring a particularly warm jacket. She's never been great at dealing with the cold. She should just go back inside, but her nerves won't let her quite yet.

“Are you alright?”

Cat turns her head and sees Daenerys just outside the door, wrapped up in her jacket, scarf and beanie, staring at her. She swallows hard. “You should go back inside,” she says softly. “Your mother will be worried about you.”

Dany scoffs, walking down the steps from the door and coming closer to Catelyn. “I told her I was going to check if you're okay,” she says. “She knows I'm the type to worry about people. And by the way, you look like you're freezing.”

“You look like you aren't,” Cat points out. “Did you really have to put all that on just to come check on me?”

Dany shrugs. “I know I can't handle the cold. I take precautions.” That might not be quite what Catelyn meant. Slowly, Dany starts to unwind the scarf from her neck, and Cat stands frozen as a deer in the headlights as, gently, the girl wraps it around her instead. “There. Is that better?”

Cat flushes and takes a step back. Somehow, the gesture feels more intimate than if Dany had kissed her, or touched her, or all the other things they've done together. “Someone will see,” she mutters.

For a second, Dany almost seems to flinch, as if wounded. “Would that be so bad?” she asks.

Catelyn raises an eyebrow. “What, when your mother and older brother and god knows how many other relatives are sitting a few metres away? I don't particularly want to be throttled to death.”

“My mum's not like that,” Dany answers breezily. “She's very understanding. She's spend most of the last decade exploring herself in Europe.”

“But you're still her little girl,” Catelyn points out. Dany looks confused. “You always will be. It's what happens when you're a mother. If I knew one of my children was carrying on with someone twice their age, I'd...” she sighs. She doesn't really know what she'd do, especially now. “I'm sorry. I guess I didn't really expect this to be so hard?” Dany looks sympathetic, and then slowly, she takes Catelyn's hand. Catelyn feels she ought to pull it away, lest anyone does see them, but she can't bring herself to. “Just sitting there with everyone around... it's so easy when it's just the two of us. I forgot what things were like the rest of the time.”

Dany nods to her, and then looks up to the sky. “Do you think it'll snow this winter?”

Catelyn blinks at the non sequitur. “Maybe. Hopefully.” It so rarely snows in London, but the romantic in her still dreams of a White Christmas. Daenerys drops her gaze back to Catelyn's face, and smiles.

“I'd like to kiss you in the snow,” she confesses. “To lick the flakes off your lips, to see them melt in your hair, to lay you down on the ground... to not have to worry. For you to not have to worry.”

“I'm not sure I know how to do that,” Catelyn says, and Dany chuckles. Still, it's shocking how tempted she is to kiss the girl. Not the way they always kiss behind closed doors – full of lust and need and frustration. And not the way Daenerys describes it, in some winter wonderland too perfect to ever happen. But here, now, she's tempted to kiss Dany on the lips, quickly and thoughtlessly, like it's the most normal thing in the universe. Like it doesn't even matter if anyone sees.

Cat takes her hand away. Having sex with the girl is one thing, but to start thinking like that...

They stare at each other a moment, and slowly, Catelyn starts unwrapping the scarf around her neck, shivering as the cold air hits her bare skin. “Come now. We should head back inside, before they start to worry about us.”

And when they do, no-one gives them a second look.

* * *

She's just about to leave one morning for work, she's already kissed Dany goodbye when she opens the door and finds someone else standing in front of it.

He looks equally bewildered to see her as she is to see him. “Who are you?” he asks, his nose turned up at her.

“...My name's Catelyn,” she says automatically, but that doesn't answer the question except in the most technical sense. He gives her the once over, and then snorts.

“Figures. Where's my sister then?”

_Oh._ In hindsight, his platinum hair and purplish eyes are a dead giveaway – she doesn't know many people who look like the Targaryens. And she does know Rhaegar and Daenerys have another sibling, who she's never met, until now it seems – unfortunately she can't recall the name. “Sleeping, I think.”

“Viserys?”

Just then, Cat turns to see Daenerys standing in the kitchen doorway, watching them wide-eyed. She stands, Cat notes, at a more than comfortable distance.

“Dany!” this Viserys cries with a grin. “Hi there. I was just talking to your fuckbuddy of the week. How is my favourite sister?”

The girl grits her teeth together and does not respond to the jibe, but Catelyn can see a faint shiver run through her body. _She's scared._ It's almost bewildering to her. Daenerys has always seemed so strong, so brave, so brilliant, Cat can barely comprehend the concept she could be scared. And by her own brother?”

“It's almost six in the morning,” Dany says softly. “What are you doing here?”

“Do I need an excuse to check up on you?” he asks, and Dany averts her eyes, swallowing hard. Cat feels a little nauseous. Viserys looks unsatisfied with Dany's lack of response, and so he turns his attention to Cat again. “This one's not your usual type, is she?” he asks. “A bit old. Let me guess, Mother's off on one of her trips again?”

“I think you should leave,” Cat tells him.

Viserys looks surprised. “Oh?” he asks, and looks back over her shoulder towards his sister. “Come now Dany, I'm only teasing you. You're not going to let this cougar talk to me like that, will you?”

Dany still doesn't answer, looking as if she wants to disappear through the floor, and that makes Cat's mind up for her. “Go.” She grabs the door by the handle, ready to slam it in his face. “Now.”

Viserys waits a second more for Daenerys to speak up for him, but when she doesn't, he huffs. “Fine,” he says and storms off, and Catelyn happily shoves the door shut. She'd lock it if she had a key.

After that's done, she sighs, and then rushes over to Dany's side. “Hey, hey,” she says, leaning in and gently holding the girl's shoulder. “Are you alright?”

Dany nods quickly. “Yeah,” she says, looking up and meeting Cat's eye, giving a forced smile. “Sorry, I – didn't know he'd show up. I would have warned you.”

“Don't worry about me,” Cat says, and pulls the girl into a quick hug, kissing her brow.

Dany sighs deeply. “My brother,” she says, “he... still lives with our father. Sometimes he shows up to – I don't know. I think he thinks me and Rhaegar betrayed him by choosing our mother or something.”

Cat swallows deeply. She doesn't know very much about the Targaryen family history, but she does know Aerys and Rhaella's divorce was _very_ ugly, and she thinks the relationship was likely abusive. She doesn't want poor Dany to get dragged into that. “Have you told your mother about this?” she asks. “Or Rhaegar?”

Dany shakes her head. “They'd only worry.”

“Of course. They're your family, it's their job to worry about you.” Gently, she strokes Daenerys' chin. “It's clear you're scared of him.”

“I don't usually let him get to me this much,” Dany insists. “I just – I wasn't expecting it, and with you here... I don't know.” She sighs. “I'm sorry he said those things about you, by the way.”

Cat scoffs. “What, that I'm too old for you? His power of stating the obvious is indeed intimating.” That makes Dany laugh, and relax a little.

The girl sighs and nods toward the door. “Go on, you ought to get out of here,” she says, and Cat blinks. “I'll be alright, really. You're going to be late for work.”

Cat bites her lip and hesitates. Dany's right, she _will_ be late for work if she stays any longer. But she can't bring herself to leave the girl alone right now. Especially not if that boy comes back.

Decision made, Catelyn reaches for her phone and dials work. “Hi, Beric? It's me, Catelyn. I'm afraid I can't come in today. Rickon's come down with a fever I'm afraid, I have to take care of him.” Luckily her boss is understanding, and is usually telling her she ought to take more time off anyway, so he doesn't take much convincing. Once that's done, Cat hangs up and turns back to look at Dany, who seems faintly bemused.

“You know, you really didn't have to do that,” she says.

Cat sighs. “Well, I did.”

“Your children won't wonder where you are if they find out your not at work?”

She waves her hand. “Oh, they all know I'm off fucking _someone_ anyway.”

That makes Dany laugh, and Catelyn squeezes her shoulder gently. “Now go on, go back to bed. I'll bring you a cup of tea, and we can watch movies until you feel better. 'Netflix and chill', I believe you kids call it?”

Daenerys smirks. “I don't think you used that correctly.”

“...Of course I didn't,” Cat sighs, and Dany laughs again. “Now off with you.”

And they spend the rest of the morning in bed, watching some Danish murder mystery that isn't exactly Catelyn's idea of comfort television, but is rather entertaining, in a morbid sort of way. They don't have sex, which is what she discreetly googles is what 'Netflix and chill' actually means. They just lie there and cuddle, and Cat tries not to worry.

* * *

So it's her fault for letting Dany hoist her up onto the kitchen counter and eat her out right there and then, which is frankly just unsanitary. Because of this, her clothes are already strewn all over the place by the time they make it to the bedroom, and when it's time for her to leave again she has to hunt them down across the flat.

She's just got her bra and her blouse on, and is searching for her trousers, when she hears the door swing open and freezes. “Hey! Sorry for waking you up, I'll be out of here in a second, I just need to grab my camera – I left it here a couple of days ago, I'll be gone in a moment Aunt–”

And then into the living room comes Daenerys' nephew. Cat's nephew. Jon.

“–Catelyn?”

He stares at her, bewildered, and then he realises she's half-naked and starts to blush. She blushes too, and hurriedly holds her trousers up to her waist to conceal as much of herself as she can.

“Jon,” she says awkwardly. “I appreciate you much have many questions. Would you mind if I answered those questions once I am wearing pants?”

He nods. “That's fine.”

 


	9. Chapter 9

When Cat re-enters the bedroom, Dany is still half-asleep, tangled in her sheets. “Cat?” she stirs slowly. “I thought you left. Is something wrong?”

Catelyn lets out a shaky breath. “Jon's here.”

A pause, and then Daenerys sits straight up. “Wait, that Jon?” she asks, and Cat gives her a dubious look. What other Jon could it be? “Right,” says Dany, processing. “Did he see you?”

“Yes,” Cat says. “He's waiting in the living room. I think he wants an explanation.”

Dany sighs. “Great,” she mutters. “I better get dressed then.”

* * *

Catelyn and Daenerys end up sitting side by side on the couch, with Jon perched on the coffee table in front of them, sipping a cup of tea he's helped himself to. Cat can't help but feel like a teenage girl in trouble with her dad, despite Jon being younger than one of her sons.

“...So,” he says.

“So,” Dany echoes, while Cat blushes and averts her eyes. This is ridiculous; she ought to be the adult in the situation, but she can't do anything but wallow in her own mortificaation. “What do you want to know, Jon?”

Jon frowns, and gestures at them vaguely with his free hand. “Mostly just – what?”

Cat looks up, and raises an eyebrow. “That's not very specific.”

He sighs. “Right. I'll try and start somewhere,” he says, and then he bites his lip. “So, how long has this been going on then?”

Dany turns and looks at Catelyn, and they both take a moment to try and remember. “A month or two?” Cat suggests. They can't have been having sex for much more than a month, but the kissing and whatnot started a few weeks before that.

Jon nods. “Alright. And is this a relationship, or just–?”

“Just casual,” Catelyn answers quickly, turning back to Jon. “I'm – still sort of an an experimental phase, I guess.” God, that sounds stupid coming from someone pushing forty, but Jon goes along with it.

“I was gonna say,” he says sheepishly, “I didn't know you liked women?”

“Nor did I,” mutters Cat.

“It's hardly any of your business either way,” Dany says, and she takes Cat's hand. Cat looks down at the girl's fingers wrapping around her own, and bites her lip.

Jon looks a little taken aback. “Sorry, I didn't mean to pry,” he says. “But still. Do my cousins know?”

“No,” says Cat. Then Jon is silent for a long moment, and Cat can feel her stomach lurch. She tightens her fingers around Dany's nervously. “Are you going to tell them?”

A pause, and then Jon sighs deeply. “No, not if you don't want me to. I wouldn't do that to you,” he says, and Cat sighs in relief. She knows that's not going to be the end of it however. “But I think you should tell them. After all, they're already suspicious – it'll be easier if they find out from you, and not some other way.”

Cat knows he's right. She can't keep this secret forever, and at least if she explains it herself there's a chance they'll understand. It's just, the thought of having to put it into words, to subject herself to their judgement, to show the children who love her unconditionally how frail and human she really is...

A thought occurs to Catelyn. Talking about this with Jon has been awkward, as one might expect, but he's not done a lot of things she thought he might. Such as shout, or scream, or accuse her of taking advantage. He doesn't even seem angry. It's weird. “I'll admit, you're taking this better than I thought you would,” she says. “I thought you'd fly into a rage at the evil cradle-snatcher defiling your beloved aunt.”

“ _Catelyn_ ,” Dany says and she puts an arm around Cat's shoulder, squeezing gently, while Jon just sighs.

“Look, Dany, I know you,” he says. “I trust your judgement.” A pause. “On this at least.” Dany makes a mildly offended noise. “I'm sure you're exactly as in control as you want to be.” And Cat blushes faintly, pulling her sleeves down to cover cuffmarks she's sure aren't actually there. “From everything I know about the both of you, it seems unlikely that this a matter of an older woman taking advantage of a younger one.”

“Good,” says Dany. “And for the record, it's still my place to be the protective one – I am the aunt, you are the nephew.”

Jon raises an eyebrow. “I'm a year older than you.”

“Hardly! It's like ten months, tops.”

Catelyn sighs. “Alright, you two,” she says. Maybe they really are half her age. “Is that all?”

Jon nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so.” Another pause. “So, I'll just...”

He stands up and moves toward the door – then Cat stands too. “Wait!”

Jon pauses, and Cat walks over to the mantel. “Your camera.”

She grabs it off the shelf and tosses it to him, and Jon blinks at it in surprise, as if he only just remembered it existed. “Oh. Oh, right,” he says. Then he looks up, and chuckles. “Sorry. You two kind of threw me for a loop there.” Cat smiles and nods, and Jon sighs. “Right, well I'll be off now. Aunt Cat – talk to your kids?”

Cat winces. “I'll try,” she says, but she's not sure she can keep that promise.

Jon leaves then, and Catelyn sighs deeply. Soon she feels Dany's hand gently massaging her shoulder, which she allows. “Are you alright?” Dany asks. When Cat feels the girl press a kiss to the back of her neck she jumps. She turns around to face Dany, who looks startled.

After a moment, Cat softens, smiling. “Yes. Yes, of course I'm alright, I just...” Really, what is the matter with her? That went better than she could have possibly expected. Jon didn't even mention the whole uncomfortable they're-both-his-aunts issue. Shouldn't she be relieved? “I suppose that threw me for a loop too.”

“Fair enough,” says Dany, and she kisses Cat properly, on the lips – only briefly, but still. “But Jon won't tell anyone, I know him. And he knows I'd make him pay if he did.”

Cat tries to smile, but it feels fake, forced. She knows Dany is right, but it's not as reassuring as it ought to be. Perhaps it's less Jon telling she's worried about, than him knowing.

Daenerys can clearly read the discomfort on her face, and chooses to alleviate it by kissing her again, deep and thorough and claiming – Cat groans against her lips, and she knows it would be too easy to give in to it, to be drawn back into the bed and away from any hint of responsibility – but no, she is the adult, and Jon is right. If she is going to do this, she ought to be mature enough to be honest about it. But before all that, she has to go to work.

She sighs and draws away. “I have to go,” she says, nodding toward the clock. “Sorry.”

Dany is pouting a little, but she nods. “I understand,” she says, and pecks Catelyn one last time. “See you soon?”

Cat nods. After all, how long has she managed to stay away?

* * *

It shouldn't really change anything, the fact Jon knows about them, but somehow it does. It doesn't change the way Dany acts around her, or the way anyone else does, but it changes the way Catelyn thinks.

One night when she turns up at Dany's door the girl is grinning, and immediately tugs her back out of it. “One of my friends has asked me to watch her flat for a couple of days. She has a balcony. Come on.”

And that's how Catelyn finds herself on her hands and knees on the balcony of a total stranger's flat, moaning like a whore as Daenerys fingerfucks her hard from behind, slapping her arse and making her cry out, the cacophony of her wailing blending in with the sounds of the street below them.

“Like that, do you?” Dany growls in her ear, and Cat can't do anything but gasp and nod. She wonders how Dany knew this, the sort of fantasies she has, how much it turns her on that anyone could be watching them right now – the people down there have no idea who she is, they've never seen her make up to eight different lunches a morning, or compose an impeccable legal brief and get zero credit for it, or politely turn down her sister's invitations to take the kids off her hands for a couple of days. They've only ever seen her getting fucked and loving it.

It's usually so easy to give into the fantasy, to let Daenerys do what she wants with her and worry about the consequences later, but this time Catelyn can't quite shake the worries at the back of her mind. Anyone could see them. _Anyone_. What if one of her children comes walking by? She's not sure they could recognise her from this high up, she's not sure anyone could see much more than her hair, but it's quite the risk. What if Jon stops by again? Hell, what if someone calls the cops? Does she want to go home tomorrow morning and have to tell her children she spent the night in a jail cell?

Catelyn's never been scared of heights, a childhood spent plunging from the highest rocks she could find into the freezing river water below having taken care of that, but when she looks out across the street below it's hard not to feel dizzy. She tries to stare at her hands. She shouldn't be surprised when Dany removes her fingers and plunges the strap-on into her instead, and she isn't, but she cries out as if she is.

Daenerys fucks hard and bites her neck and pulls her hair, and Cat doesn't last long, mewling pathetically as she trembles around the toy, not even needing to be touched. Dany fucks her straight through her orgasm, so much so Catelyn initially wonders if the girl has even noticed, not stopping until Cat is practically sobbing.

Once she finally pulls out, leaving Cat's cunt feels sore and wet and used, empty, Cat remains in place, trembling on all fours as she hides her face against the ground. For some reason, she just feels so ashamed of herself, and she can't force the feeling away. “Catelyn?” Dany's hand is on her shoulder again, every trace of roughness in her voice now gone, leaving only the gentle-hearted young woman Catelyn has come to – know – and that only makes it worse. “Are you alright?”

Cat sniffs. She's being stupid, she knows that, and she ought to get over herself. “Fine,” she says and she slowly tries to push herself up. Her arms shake and threaten to give up on her, but she manages to get to her feet. Then her legs practically collapse.

Daenerys catches her, clearly stumbling a little when she has to take the brunt of Catelyn's weight, but Cat soon manages to right herself mostly, even if she still clings to Dany's arms for balance. Once Dany gets a good look at her, Cat sees the girl's face contort into a grimace. “I hurt you.”

Cat's mouth drops open, and then she immediately starts trying to downplay and dismiss it. “Oh no, not at all – well, maybe I'm a little sore, but I'll live–”

“That's not what I meant.”

Cat stops, and when she looks up at Dany, she realises how _guilty_ the girl looks. That's not right. It's not Daenerys who ought to feel guilty. “I'm so sorry. I went too far, I do that sometimes,” she says, and leans up on her tip-toes to press a kiss to Catelyn's brow, gentle and tender and full of emotion. “I – I should have checked how you were feeling. I suppose I got caught up in the moment.”

“Me too,” Cat murmurs. “I – I was enjoying it. I was.” Dany gives her a dubious look, and Cat sighs. How can she explain. “I think I've always had slightly exhibitionistic tendencies, even if I've not acted on them,” she says. “I think I just – I feel guilty, about how much I enjoy it?”

Dany sighs, and kisses her brow again. “Still. I should _ask_ about that sort of thing,” she says. “Come on. Let's go back to the flat. I'll tuck you into bed.”

There's something about the way Dany says that – it's _the_ flat, not her flat. It seems only a short step from calling it _our_ flat. Cat finds that frightening, but tempting also. She sighs and looks down at the granite balcony floor, wincing at the puddle of sweat and god-knows-what she left there. “We ought to clean that up first,” she says. After all, she can do as she likes in their flat, but it's hardly fair for her to stain a total stranger's property while pursuing her perversions.

“I'll worry about that,” Dany tells her, and Cat bites her lip. “Come on.”

In the end she follows, because it's the easiest thing to do.

* * *

It's her fault for getting nosy again. Daenerys is taking a shower after fucking her, and Cat feels on edge, antsy. It's not as if the sex wasn't good, the girl made her come, but still – Dany's been infuriatingly gentle since that night on the balcony, afraid of going too far again. Catelyn wants to tell her that going too far isn't the problem, but the thing is she doesn't really know what the problem is.

Bored, Catelyn finds herself idly looking at Dany's laptop. The girl has always been pretty casual about Cat using her property. She switches tabs, looking over uni work and book reviews, until she finds herself scrolling through Dany's – tumbler, she thinks was the word?

She raises an eyebrow when she comes across a photo of a handsome young man, naked, although his penis is tastefully just out-of-shot. The whole photo is in black and white, except for his blue hair and beard. Cat chuckles a little to herself. She will never understand millenial fashions.

Cat would just scroll on and forget about it, until she notices a niggling detail. This post is one of the few without a little 'reblogged from' up top. Meaning this is one of the posts Daenerys made herself.

She blinks a moment, processing this fact, and just then Daenerys walks back in and settles by her side, completely naked. “What are you looking at?” she asks curiously.

“A photo you took,” Catelyn answers before she can think better of it. Dany raises an eyebrow. “It's very well shot. Although I'm not sure your mother would approve.”

Dany laughs. “Hey, you should see some of the thing's Mum's painted in her art classes,” she says. “But seriously – thanks.”

That grateful little smile Dany gives her is so sweet that Catelyn should just move on and change the subject, before she ruins it, but instead her eyes are drawn back to the screen. “And um, this boy,” she asks, “is he – an ex-boyfriend of yours?”

Cat feels silly for asking. Would Dany really be posting naked pictures of her ex? “What, Daario?” the girl asks. “What, no. Not really. We had a bit of a thing when I was sixteen, but it didn't work out. Now we're just friends.” A pause. “Well, friends with benefits.”

Stupidly, Catelyn feels her stomach lurch. “Oh.”

Daenerys frowns at her. “That doesn't bother you, right?” she asks. “I mean, we're not exactly exclusive, right?”

“Oh no, of course not,” Catelyn says, quickly sliding the laptop closed. Dany keeps frowning a moment after, as if expecting some other answer, but what other answer can there be? Catelyn was the one who told Jon right in front of Dany that they were just casual, that she was just experimenting, she's the one who lives in terror of anyone finding out. She has no right to be jealous.

Besides, this Daario is young, handsome, dynamic – exactly the sort of man Dany should be having fun in her wild years fucking. She shouldn't have to spend this part of her life appeasing all Catelyn's neuroses.

After a moment, Dany nods awkwardly, and then slides under the sheets. “Right,” she says. “So, are you going to spend the night here, or...”

“...Actually I really ought to go back home,” Catelyn says. “It's not that late, and I think I'm okay to drive home. My children will be worried if I'm gone too often.”

Dany nods, but Cat suspects the girl looks slightly wounded. She feels a little guilty, but she knows the kids must be her top priority. “Right,” Daenerys says. “Well: when can I see you again?”

Catelyn smiles at her. “Whenever I'm free,” she says, before kissing the girl goodbye. That might well be never, but still, she keeps coming back here.

* * *

She gets home and finds Jon Snow, looking exhausted, perched on her couch. “Jon,” she says as she turns the lounge lights back on, and he jumps. “What are you doing here? Is everything alright?”

“Hmm?” he asks, rubbing his eyes. “Yeah, everything's fine. It's just Sansa's out with Margaery for the night, and Robb got called by Theon with some late-night emergency – so Robb called me to come keep an eye on the younger ones.”

Catelyn stops, sighs, and closes her eyes. “I should have been here,” she mutters, the guilt overwhelming her. She is a mother, she has duties, and she can't neglect them just to live out her vicarious youth. “Is everyone okay?”

“...Yeah, everyone's fine,” says Jon, and when Cat opens her eyes again she can see he's frowning at her. “I mean, Arya's fifteen, she can look after herself. Bran and Rickon aren't little kids anymore either. I mostly agreed to come just to stop Robb worrying. And really, knowing Theon the way I do, I strongly suspect that emergency may well have been a booty call.”

Cat manages a weak smile. Jon has a point, about Theon at least – but still, Theon's barely more than a teenager, you'd expect nothing less. She has no such excuse. In Jon's eyes, she can see he's trying to tell her what he's speaking around – she doesn't have to feel so guilty. She wishes people would stop telling her that.

“Aunt Catelyn, are you alright?” he asks, catching her off-guard. “Did you and Dany have a fight?”

She flinches. She knows he knows, but hearing him actually acknowledge it after their impossibly awkward confrontation is... something else. “No. No, we didn't, we just...” she sighs. Part of her badly wants to confide in him, if only because he's the only one who knows, he's the only one who could possibly give her any sympathy. But would he? After all, the problem is 'I'm upset because my fuckbuddy has another fuckbuddy, a better fuckbuddy, who can give her what I can't or won't.' Why wouldn't he just think she's as stupid as she thinks she is?

Cat sighs deeply. “I'm just tired, Jon. I think I'll head to bed now.” And he nods, lying back on her couch, clearly preparing to spend the night as an addition to the family, keeping an eye on them all.

She sleeps in her own bed that night, by herself, and she feels cold, lonely, and older than ever.

 


	10. Chapter 10

It starts, of all things, because of _The Little Mermaid._

Cat shows up on Dany's doorstep one night without warning. She can in fact drive, she is not reliant on the girl to pick her up. Dany hasn't been texting as much as usual since their not-a-fight, but Cat tells herself not to worry about it. Daenerys is probably just busy, she might have exams. Is it that time of the year? You'd think she'd know that. Catelyn has considered texting first, reminding the girl she's still alive, but inevitably she just found herself staring at her phone, wondering what to say. She's old, phones aren't her forte. Far easier to just show up at the girl's apartment without warning, without any idea how Dany might react.

She might not have thought this through completely.

But still, when Dany opens the door and sees her, the girl breaks into a huge grin, not-fight utterly forgotten. “Cat!” She cries and throws her arms around Cat like a girlfriend who hasn't seen her in years – a girl friend, not girlfriend. Cat uses the term in the _Sex and the City_ sense of the word, not _The L Word._ “There you are. The neighbours were starting to think I must have killed you and buried you under the floorboards.”

Catelyn is not entirely comfortable with the thought Daenerys' neighbours have grown so used to her presence as to worry when she's not here, but she's sure Dany's kidding. She returns the hug. “I'm sorry, you didn't text.” She wonders if that came out a little passive-aggressive. “I thought you might be busy. I didn't want to bother you if you had to study for exams and the like.”

Daenerys finally lets go, and pulls a face. “Urgh, don't remind me,” she says. “I mean, they're not for like a month yet, but I have been sort of slacking this semester, so I'm studying pretty hard.” A pause. “Well, okay, not at the moment. At the moment I'm watching Disney movies to de-stress.”

“Oh?” Cat peers over her shoulder, and hears the telltale sounds of _Under the Sea_ emanating from Dany's laptop.

Dany grins at her. “Well come on, come in. Movies are better with someone to cuddle anyway.”

Hesitantly, Cat steps into the flat and takes a seat on the couch, looking at the screen resting on the coffee table. It remains odd to her that Daenerys doesn't have a television to watch this on, but she supposes computers are basically magic these days. It probably shouldn't bother her what they're watching – she knows watching children's films even as adults is just one of those things people of Dany's generation do. Margaery and Sansa's anniversary tradition is to maratheon Disney Princess movies, to Arya's vocal disgust, even if she inevitably ends up joining them by the time they get to _Mulan_. Watching a children's film doesn't make Daenerys a child.

Still, Cat has a lot of memories monopolised by the Disney corporation. She remembers having to persuade a seven-year-old Arya that disguising yourself as a boy and running away to join the army was actually a very bad idea. She remembers the first time Bran saw the _The Lion King_ and was so upset by Mufasa's death he had to sleep in the bed with her and Ned that night. She remembers years of Theon nagging them about this movie, about how it's not the _real_ Little Mermaid, how they turned his people's story about misery and death into a stupid girly fairytale, which is a lot of nationalist pride for a boy who's never actually been to Denmark, not to mention an unnecessarily macho attitude toward a tragic love story that might all be a metaphor for homosexuality anyway.

Vaguely, Cat also remembers when she was nine, or maybe ten, and actually got to see this film in theatres, but for the most part her children's childhoods have replaced her own.

She's left a little on edge, but Dany doesn't seem to notice, curling into her side and resting her head in Catelyn's lap, like Sansa used to when watching movies. As Ariel swims off to meet the evil sea witch, Dany murmurs “You know, she reminds me of you.”

Catelyn frowns. “She's sixteen.”

Dany laughs. “Alright, fine. She reminds me of Sansa then.” Cat winces. Yes, Sansa is something like Ariel – a beautiful young redhead, a wide-eyed ingenue full of love and dreams. If not for Margaery, it would make far more sense for Dany to be interested in her daughter than her. For one thing, they're much closer in age. Also, Sansa is openly interested in women. _Am I really jealous?_ Catelyn wonders. _I know she's not going to leave me for my daughter. I know she can't leave me at all, we're not together to start with._

“I don't know, something about you just makes me think of mermaids. You said you grew up by a river, didn't you?” Ned used to say she looked like a mermaid whenever they took the children to the beach. “I considered asking if you'd pose for a photoshoot, actually, but I figured you wouldn't.”

Cat frowns. _You just assumed that?_ she wants to ask, and she wonders why. Does Daenerys just assume she's too insecure about her body, her stretch marks and wrinkles and love handles? Or does she assume Cat would be too worried about the children finding them, and wondering what was going on? She sighs. Both are probably correct, and so she has no right to feel offended.

_I'm more Ursula than Ariel,_ Catelyn thinks as the sea witch breaks into _Poor Unfortunate Souls,_ and she sighs.

A few minutes later, Daenerys sits up. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something,” she says. “There's a demo against that new power plant this Saturday. Do you want to come?”

Cat frowns. _Like a date?_ she almost asks, but she bites her lip, not wanting to sound like a silly teenage girl “I'm... not sure that's a good idea,” she says slowly.

Daenerys frowns at her. “Why not?”

“I'm a lawyer,” Cat points out. “I try and avoid things like that, lest I develop a conflict of interest.”

“What, have you been hired to do – something?”

“No, but you never know, I could be,” Cat points out.

“That seems like unnecessary caution to me. There are other law firms,” Dany says. “And we need people like you, y'know, middle-aged mums with good jobs and credibility. We're just a bunch of annoying uni students, protesting is what we do.”

Cat sighs. “Speaking of which, isn't that spot out in like Essex?”

“Yeah, we're hiring a bus. And?”

“Daenerys, I have my children to look after,” Cat tells her. “I can't drive halfway across the country on a moment's notice.”

“It's hardly halfway across the country, and I figured Robb or Jon could look after them,” Dany points out. “You haven't minded so much when you've stayed the night here.”

_Yes, when they're asleep and won't notice if I let them down._ “What if there's trouble with the law?” Cat asks. “I can't afford that. I can't have my own children having to bail me out. And what about work?! They generally frown on lawyers getting arrested. I have a family to support, all on my own, I can't take risks like that.”

“And what, you think I'm just going to go crazy and burn the place down?” Dany asks.

Cat makes an irritated noise. “Well, no but – I don't know! You've told me many times, you have a history of taking things too far!”

A pause. Dany glares at her, with the same wildly fiery passion Cat's used to, but also she can tell that despite herself the girl is genuinely hurt. _I didn't mean that,_ Cat wants to say, but... “So, is that it? You have your list of excuses all sorted out?” A pause. “I suppose it's nothing to do with being afraid to be seen with me?”

Cat's mouth drops open. _I..._ yes, she's afraid. Shouldn't she be? She was afraid when Jon burst in on them too. She can imagine all Daenerys' friends, these young dreamers off to save the world one protest at a time, watching her trailing after the beautiful young girl, pathetic at best and predatory at worst. She is old, and Dany is young, and she knows that in the end, she has no place in the girl's life. She'd rather not be told that, after all.

Daenerys sees the look on her face, and scoffs. “Coward.”

“Excuse me?!” Catelyn leaps to her feet, wounded, and Daenerys, never one to back down, follows her.

“You heard me,” she says. “You're perfectly happy to come here for some fun and to forget who you are, but you'll never _think_ about who you are, you'll never find a way to slot me into your life. You'll keep running about like the happy little Catholic housewife who'll never touch a man who isn't her dead husband, let alone a girl. You'll never take any responsibility.”

“Responsibility?” Cat asks, disbelieving. “You're the one telling me I ought to drop everything that matters to me, my work and my children and all of it, just so I can chase after you at your dreams. You're the one living your young life, having fun with boys on the side, and that's good, that's what you should be doing! You don't need me. Daenerys, I know you're young but–”

“Alright, you can't come here night after night all but begging for me to fuck you and then patronise me, _Mrs. Stark._ ”

Cat stops. _Mrs. Stark._ It's still awful to hear, but not the way it was back in that car months ago. The guilt doesn't bother her as much as the fact that's what Dany used to call her, before all this began. Just like that, it's like the last two months were nothing. They barely know each other once more. She is in fact nothing but Mrs. Stark, nothing but her husband's widow, nothing but her children's mother, nothing but Dany's nephew's other aunt, nothing.

She swallows hard. “I think I ought to go,” she says.

Daenerys turns her head, avoiding her eye. “Fine. Go,” she says coldly.

Catelyn storms out, refusing to look up and see if any of the neighbours heard all the shouting. When she makes it to the lift she slams the button, then curses as it starts to go blurry. She's not going to cry over this. What would be the point in crying over this?

She makes it out into the cold night air before she has to stop, she can hardly see anymore. Hurriedly she wipes her face with her hands, and once she's recovered enough to discern the shape of anything, she finds herself staring at her phone again.

_Did we just break up?_ she wants to text and ask the girl, but of course they were never together in the first place.

She is nothing like Ariel, she knows that. Ariel is a young girl who can dream of living in another world, and it's nobody's place to stop her. But Catelyn has her world, she knows where she belongs, and maybe there just isn't a place for Dany next to her.

 


	11. Chapter 11

The easiest thing to do is just to carry on as normal. To let things go back to normal. She keeps staring at her phone, thinking the girl might call – text – but Dany – _Daenerys_ – will be better off if they let it just die now, before they're both in over their heads. Catelyn's had her little mid-life crisis, as everyone does in the end, but now life goes on.

Sansa's birthday is coming up, and despite the weather, they're going on a picnic in the park. Catelyn is already sort of dreading the avalanche of colds that will inevitably result (even though Bran keeps telling her the spread of colds during winter has nothing to do with the cold weather and is because everyone is cramped indoors together for months, he won't be saying that when he's sniffling on her for weeks), but she can hardly refuse for her daughter's seventeenth. Sansa keeps dreaming one year the lake will ice over and they'll go skating for her birthday, which has never happened, but Catelyn won't crush her spirit.

If the children notice Cat isn't sneaking off at all hours and coming home a shaky-legged mess, they're too polite to mention it. Either that, or it's all too embarrassing for them.

The morning of Sansa's birthday, Cat is up in the kitchen making all sorts of sandwiches – tuna, chicken, avocado, capsicum, salami, cheese and onion, she hopes she has every dietary requirement covered. Her phone waits on the kitchen table, but she tells herself not to look at it. She hardly needs to check any recipes just to make sandwiches.

Margaery and Theon both stay over the night before, and when Theon comes down from Robb's room suspiciously early, Cat pretends not to notice his lack of a shirt. Her son is twenty, after all. “Theon, do you think I have enough sandwich toppings?” she asks as he helps himself to some of her orange juice, because he was unfortunate enough to wake up first and so he gets to be the target for her neuroses. “We have tuna, chicken, salami, avocado, cheese, capsicum – do you think I ought to find another fish-based one? I know how you feel about seafood.”

Bleary-eyed, he blinks at her. “Yeah, fish tastes great when I'm off shitting in the bushes,” he says, and she blinks at him, almost about to chide him for the language. “I'm gluten intolerant, remember?”

_Oh._ Of course Theon's gluten intolerant, she knows that, she's known the boy since he was eight years old and spent Robb's birthday curled up on the floor of her bathroom because of course Mr. Greyjoy didn't see fit to _tell_ her he had any allergies, he just thought Theon was being a wimp, and how could she forget that?

“I see,” she says, and there's no need to panic, there's hours left before they have to leave, she has more than enough time to nip down the supermarket and pick up some gluten-free alternatives, but she turns back to her pile of sandwiches – too many sandwiches, she has a lot of kids but not that many, they'll never get through them all – and slowly puts down the butter knife. Everything is starting to go blurry.

“Mrs. Stark?” Theon asks, mildly alarmed, as Catelyn can feel a tremble go through her body. Hurriedly, she wipes her cheeks with her hands – she's not going to _cry_ over this, they're just sandwiches, and that would be both stupid and pointless. She smears butter on her face. Somehow that just makes it worse, and try as she might she can't keep the lump from jumping up in her throat, she turns away so at least Theon can't see her face, and she keeps thinking _stupid, stupid, stupid_. “Hey, hey, it's okay,” and suddenly he's by her side, his arm hovering next to awkwardly, like he's not sure what to do – should he try and hug her? Eventually, he laces that arm around her shoulders, and squeezes gently. And Cat turns and sobs into his chest, the chest of a boy she's known since he came up to her waist, and Theon awkwardly strokes her hair while she desperately tries to compose herself.

Once she's regained some measure of dignity, she hurriedly pulls away, and wipes her cheeks properly this time. “Sorry,” she says. “That was... embarrassing.”

Theon, for his part, has not taken his arm from around her shoulders. He gives her a little half-smile. “You know, I'm going to take a punt here and say this isn't just about my dietary requirements.”

Cat lets out a short, brief laugh. Then she sighs deeply. She doesn't know why she'd talk to him about this of all people, but– “I suppose you know I've been seeing someone lately.”

Theon nods along. “Yeah, I guessed,” he says. “Well, Robb guessed, and I believed him. Kid's smart.” Cat wonders whether she should point out it wasn't Robb but his sisters who actually figured it out, but that's not really necessary detail for Theon to know. “So what, have you and the new beau had a fight or something?”

“Something like that,” she says, even though there are a lot of ways in which he's slightly off – 'beau' chief among them. “I'm – I'm not sure we're seeing each other anymore. I've been hoping for a text, but...” she sighs again. “It wasn't meant to be like this. It wasn't meant to be... serious. I was just jumping in, following my passions, _feeling_. I didn't think I'd end up – in a relationship, not like a _relationship_ relationship, but just – two people who know each other? Two people who _care_ about each other? Except, now I've gone and fucked it up because I'm stupid and selfish and a coward and so now it all means as little as it was meant to mean in the first place, except I still feel like _shit_.”

It's a good thing she didn't tell Theon off for his languages, if she's going to speak much the same. She's sure she's babbling like an idiot, he won't be able to follow a word, but he tightens his grip on her shoulder and nods along surprisingly. “So, you went and did the whole fuckbuddy thing,” he says, “and you kept telling yourself it didn't mean anything, except now it's all gone to hell in a handbasket and _you_ feel like hell without whoever-it-is, and you feel awful for not realising how much you cared until it was over and it's too late to do anything about?”

Her mouth drops open slightly, and she stares at him. “How did you...?”

He chuckles at her. “I've been there a thousand times, Mrs. Stark. No judgement.” Oh. That makes a certain degree of sense. She sighs again.

“Any advice then?”

Theon shrugs. “Well, my strategy was always just moving on and acting like nothing happened and never dealing with my feelings, but – most of my life decisions have been bad, I wouldn't recommend them.” She laughs at that. He looks down at her phone. “You sure there's no chance you can patch things up?”

“Maybe,” she says, following his eye, and then she winces. “But I shouldn't,” she reminds herself. “It's not right anyway, it was never right.” At Theon's bewildered look, she bites her lip. “There's – sort of a whole age gap thing.” She pauses, expecting him to say something, like maybe _what sort of age gap? Older or younger than your children?_ But he doesn't, and so she carries on. “I should just let it go, it's not like I think I deserve her, I'm just a sad old woman pining after someone too good for me–”

“Hey, hey, you are not some sad old woman,” Theon tells her, squeezing her shoulder again. She blinks at him. “And if Robb hears somebody's been talking about his mum that way, there'll be trouble, I tell you.” She can't help but smile at that. He sighs. “Fuck, I'm starting to see where Robb gets it from. You're allowed to fuck up sometimes, you know? Everybody does. If you can't forgive yourself for it, you'll go crazy.” And that makes sense, so much so Cat's starting to wonder when her son's bad influence boyfriend became so wise. “You're still incredible. And, speaking as someone who spent the entirety of his teenage years lusting after you – mostly because I was super repressed and couldn't admit to myself I actually wanted to fuck your son, but still – any fella who's landed the one MILF to rule them all should be counting his blessings.”

Okay, apparently he didn't notice the 'her'. He makes it sound so simple. Cat's not quite sure she believes him, but she can hardly help but smile. “Thank you, Theon.”

“Hey, don't mention it,” he grins at her. “Although if you really wanted to thank me, you could go get some prawns and do them in butter and garlic like you do...?”

She laughs. “I'll think about it.” It really is the least she can do for him though.

Just then, Robb follows his boyfriend down the stairs, thankfully wearing a shirt, and blinks at the two of them. “Should I ask?”

Cat blushes faintly and pushes Theon away, while he laughs. “Sorry babe, couldn't resist her charms. You know I've always had a thing for older women.” Cat and Robb both roll their eyes simultaneously while Theon walks over and gives Robb a peck on the lips, before walking back upstairs, presumably to go get dressed. Then Robb turns to her, and notices the strange look on her face. He frowns.

“Mum? Are you okay?”

She hesitates, then sighs deeply. “I've been better,” she admits. “Just... relationship trouble.” And Robb doesn't ask anything, he just smiles sympathetically, as if to say _haven't we all been there?_ “But it's nothing to worry about. Go, get your siblings up. Except Sansa; it's her birthday, she's allowed to sleep in. But the rest of you, I need help in the kitchen.”

* * *

Sansa's birthday goes well, although as they expected, there is no ice-skating. Still, it's a nice day out with her family, they manage not to get rained on, and after that things carry on as normal. Cat starts getting back into the habits of life. Work is busy, they've got a backlog of things to catch up on since they won that embezzlement case, and Cat throws herself into it. She tries to ignore her worsening sexual frustration, but she does think, maybe it would be worth trying asking someone out. Someone of an appropriate age who is not even slightly related to her. Maybe she should try and move on for real this time.

When she finds herself idly flirting with Jaime from front office, however, she feels like slapping herself upside the head. She doesn't even _like_ him. Luckily, he just seems amused more than anything else.

This carries on a week or two until one day, at like six in the morning, someone rings her door.

When Cat answers, she immediately notes the platinum hair and Elizabeth Taylor eyes, and her heart leaps in her throat. _Dany?_ But of course it isn't; he's far too tall, and also a man. “Hi Catelyn,” Rhaegar tells her. “Can I come in?”

Cat nods and steps aside, luckily mostly dressed for work, even if she hasn't found her shoes yet. Rhaegar comes inside and shuts the door behind him. “Good morning,” she says politely, and then she gets interrupted by a deep yawn bubbling up from inside her. “Rhaegar, it's very early,” she says. “Why are you here?”

“Oh, you left some bowls over at our place. I thought I'd return them.” Then Catelyn notices the bowls he has in his hands. _And this couldn't have waited until the afternoon? You couldn't have given them to Jon to give to me?_

Then she looks at the bowls more closely, their shiny silver plating and engraving on the inside. She frowns. “I don't think those are mine,” she says.

Rhaegar sighs. “No, that was a lie,” he tells her, putting the bowls aside. “I needed an excuse to come over and talk to you. That and, I don't really like these bowls. I've been trying to foist them onto someone for months now.”

“I think they're quite pretty,” Cat murmurs, but dread settles in her bones. _He needs to talk. What could Daenerys' brother possibly want to talk to me about?_

“Well, we have different tastes,” he tells her. “Now, could we go sit down somewhere?”

They end up walking to the kitchen, Cat following a few steps behind not entirely unlike a woman walking to her execution. Rhaegar sits on a kitchen stool and helps himself to an apple from her fruit bowl. Cat perches on the other side of the counter awkwardly. “You probably have guessed what this is about,” he says, “but one of us has to be the first to bring it up. So. Daenerys.”

“I am so sorry,” Catelyn immediately blurts out. “I really didn't mean for it to happen, I know that's not an excuse but, I don't know what to tell you, she was just suddenly _there_ and I couldn't stay away and I should have known better–”

“Hey, hey, deep breaths. Relax,” Rhaegar tells her, wiping apple juice off his chin. “I mean, I'm the guy who left his wife for a sixteen year old girl. I'm not exactly in much of a place to be judging here.”

Cat pauses, and then sighs. “True. But you were only twenty three yourself at the time. I mean not that that excuses all your actions, but you weren't as should-know-better as I am.” Rhaegar frowns at her, and Cat looks down to her hands, knotting her fingers together. “I feel like I should at least have a good excuse. But I'm afraid all I've got is the standard mid-life crisis script.”

“Are you that convinced you've done something wrong?”

And Catelyn looks back up at him, bewildered. At first she thinks he must be mocking her, but Rhaegar has always been uncomfortably sincere. “I mean she's young enough to be my daughter,” she says.

Rhaegar. “I mean, that's true, but you had children very early,” he points out. “You're a few years younger than me after all, and I'm her brother.”

“That's hardly the point,” Cat says.

“Look, I'm not going to say it's ideal,” he tells her. “But what ever is? Dany's an adult, even if she's a young one, she can make her own choices. I trust her judgement, better than I trust my own.” He pauses. “Okay, maybe that's not saying very much. But still, I think you're far from the worst decision she could make. I mean, I still remember when she was fourteen and started seeing this biker guy–” Cat frowns. That's not exactly reassuring. “–which isn't relevant to the subject at hand. My point is, I do know you Catelyn, at least a little. I'm sure enough you didn't come into this with the intention of leading my poor innocent sister astray. And I'm sure it would kill you if she got hurt at a result.”

She groans and nurses her brow with her fingers. See, she doesn't know how to cope with this. She keeps expecting shouting and screaming. All this sympathy and understanding people keep giving her is throwing her for a loop. “How long have you known about this?” she asks, not sure she really wants to know.

“Oh, months,” he tells her casually, and her eyes go wide. “Since you came to her birthday. You two... weren't very subtle.”

Cat turns bright red. _Damn it._ She already knew she acted like an idiot at that party, now she has explicit confirmation. “You didn't say anything,” she mutters.

“Well, I got the impression you guys were still figuring things out. I thought Dany would tell me when she was ready,” Rhaegar says. “I thought interfering would only make things more difficult for everybody. And even if I wasn't comfortable with her seeing someone so much older, it's not like I thought she'd listen if I told her not to. I know my sister, she's stubborn. And again, the who-am-I-to-judge factor.”

Cat frowns. “And has she?” she asks, confusing him a moment before she clarifies. “Told you?”

Rhaegar sighs. “No,” he says. “But she's been moping for weeks, so I figured you guys must have had a fight or a break-up or something. I thought I should see what's happened then, and if I really should be plotting your downfall.”

“I don't know,” Cat groans, burying her face in her hands. “It all seems so stupid, in hindsight. She wanted me to go to a protest with her. And I wouldn't. And...”

“...And?”

“It got out of hand, I don't know,” Cat sighs. “Suddenly I was shouting about my kids and my work and how I couldn't just abandon everything and she was telling me I was a coward and I didn't want to take responsibility and... we haven't spoken since.”

“Sounds like a fight to me,” Rhaegar tells her. “But not exactly an irreconcilable one. If you just called her, I'm sure she'd answer.”

Cat raises an eyebrow. “Which is why you should be telling me to never talk to her again or you'll break my neck,” she says.

“...Probably,” he says. “But I don't know. Somehow I suspect that, right or wrong, she'll be happier with you than if you never talk to her again.” He shrugs. “Call it a hunch.”

“Okay but you think _Wuthering Heights_ is a healthy model for a relationship,” she points out.

Rhaegar gives a deep, beleaguered sigh. “For the last time, I never said I thought Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship was _healthy,_ said it's extreme dysfunctionality only came about as a result of the constricting circumstances of the social order around them – and anyway, that's not the point,” he says. “The point is, if Dany wants to be with you, I'm willing to at least give you a try. Mum might be a bit trickier, that's still her baby girl, but well, I'm usually able to talk to her about these things.” A pause. “Although, if she _does_ ever get hurt worse than a little post break-up moping, I can't make any promises about what will happen to you.”

Catelyn gives him a half-smile. “I would expect nothing less.”

Rhaegar nods. “Right. Now I should go, before you're late for work,” he tells her, and Catelyn suddenly remembers, and she hops to her feet and starts frantically looking for her shoes. _Damn it._ “Is it alright if I leave those bowls here? They're big and heavy and take up space in the cupboards, and I don't use them because those grooves make them impossible to clean.”

“That's fine,” Cat says distractedly. “Was there a reason we had to have this conversation at six in the morning then?”

He shrugs. “Well, I was hoping to catch you when your children were all asleep, so we could talk in private. I didn't want to embarrass you.”

Just then comes the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and Cat turns her head to see Sansa standing in front of them. Cat blinks. “Sweetheart,” she says, starting to worry, wondering what the girl just heard. “What are you doing here?”

Sansa breaks into an ear-splitting grin. “Oh, nothing! I'm not here! I'm just heading off to school, I have to be there early, I think I'm already late, bye!”

Cat's mouth drops open, but Sansa's out the door before she can say anything. Rhaegar blinks at her, lost again, and Cat sighs. “I think she thinks I'm sleeping with you,” she explains.

There's a pause. Then Rhaegar starts to laugh.

“...Oi,” says Cat, a little annoyed.

“Sorry,” he tells her, trying to get the giggles under control. “I mean no offense, just – wow. _That_ would make things even more confusing.”

* * *

So, with Theon's reassurance she's not a terrible person and with Rhaegar's at least tentative blessing, perhaps she can just call Daenerys. Perhaps she can actually try to hold on to this thing she wants, badly, and not let it slip through her fingers just because she feels like she should.

But that doesn't make it any easier to figure out _how_.

She stares at her phone again, and sighs. Everything always used to be so easy and yet, impossibly difficult. It doesn't seem like either now. It might be easier if it was impossible. If it were impossible, she would just give up. But now she can't suppress the irresistible urge to try, even if a great part of her is still saying she shouldn't.

In the end, it's not Dany she ends up calling at all.

“Aunt Catelyn?” Jon sounds puzzled when he answers, and Cat quickly checks the clock, hoping she hasn't interrupted him in the middle of anything. But it's eight, he should have finished dinner by now. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh – no. Not exactly,” she says, and then she cringes. Somehow it feels stupider to be calling him for advice than it did to do any of this in the first place. “Look, this is going to be an incredibly uncomfortable conversation for the both of us, but especially you, and I'm going to apologise for that ahead of time. I just don't really know who else to ask.”

A pause. “Is this about Daenerys?”

Cat frowns. “Okay, how did you guess that?”

“Well, I figured if you're calling me for advice, despite being really uncomfortable with it, it's because there's nobody else you can talk to. And what do I know about you that nobody else does?” Cat sighs. She can't fault his logic. “So, what's up then? Is she okay?”

“We had a fight,” Cat explains. “A couple of weeks ago. And we haven't really spoken since.”

“I see.”

Cat wonders if he's going to respond in any more detail than that, but apparently not, apparently he's waiting for her to elaborate. “And I want to call her, I want to patch things up, I want...” _her._ In her heart, all she wants is _her_.

A sigh. “Well, if you need to buy an apology gift, chocolates go better than flowers, and as much as she claims she has too many, she won't actually knock back more dragon-themed things.”

“That's not quite what I meant,” she says, although it may prove useful information, she doesn't know. “The thing is, I _want_ to. But I don't know that I should.”

“...Is this about the age gap thing?”

“Of course it is,” Cat says, and then she laughs bitterly. “It's just – I want to be with her. Can you blame me? But... why would she want to be with me?”

She swears she can hear Jon frowning. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I'm _old_ , Jon,” she tells him. “And maybe I'm not really that old but I'm old enough – I have five children. I mean, the girl's nineteen, is she really ready to be a stepmother? She's got her whole life ahead of her, yet to be made, and I'm – I'm settled. My life is all written out for me – wife, mother, widow, I'll just keep following the script until I die. And I'm happy, really I am. But – do I really want to trap her in my life with me?”

There's a long, awkward silence. “Okay, you called for advice,” Jon tells her. “And knowing her the way I do – I don't think it's your decision whether she gets 'trapped' or not. Dany has never been one to give up on things just because they're hard. She's – honestly, most of the time she doesn't know when to quit. If she wants to be with you, and you want to be with her, trust me, she'll find a way. If she has to play stepmother, she will be the most trying-too-hard stepmother you've ever met.” He pauses. “And I mean, I've seen the way she fawned over those pet lizards she had as a kid. She has some serious maternal instincts she doesn't currently have an outlet for. If your kids have to have a nineteen year old stepmother, they could do worse.”

Cat laughs at that. “I see,” she says, and then she dwells on it. So is it worth it then? Risking everything in pursuit of this one thing she wants for herself? _Maybe Daenerys was right. Maybe I am just a coward._ She winces – she hasn't been called that much in her life, which is maybe why it stung so much. It was hard to have a baby with a boy she only knew so well when she was just seventeen, it was hard to go back after having all her children and try and regain the life she always meant to have, it was hard to carry on living after Ned died and not just retreat into herself – but she did all those things, because she thought they were the right things to do. She would never have forgiven herself if she didn't.

She knows how to do things because they're right. Doing things because she wants to doesn't come so easily.

On the other end of the phone, Jon sighs. “From the general direction of this conversation, I'm guessing the whole 'just casual' thing didn't last?”

“Not exactly,” she admits. “I mean, it was. Until it wasn't.”

“Are you in love with her?”

Cat pauses. She thought about it in those terms before. She hasn't let herself. And yet, when she dwells on it for more than a second, she realises that nothing she's thought or felt or done for the last two months or so makes any sense unless she is. She groans. “I suppose so,” she says. “I mean, I'm miserable without her and keep making bad decisions because of her.”

“Sounds like love to me,” says Jon, a faint smile in his voice. “Though for the record, you're both still my aunts and this still really weird, from my point of view.”

“But I seem to have your blessing anyway?” Cat asks curiously.

He sighs. “Well, I fell that if I don't you're both just going to brood about it. And frankly, that's my job.”

Cat laughs. “Thanks Jon.” Then she hangs up, sighs, and puts her phone away.

She has his permission, not that she's all that sure she even needed it. The people in Dany's life all seem to trust her to make choices. _Except me._ Maybe that's why the girl got so mad at her; the one person who couldn't respect her being with whoever she liked. _But why would she want to be with me?_ Maybe she doesn't. Maybe she'll go crawling back to the girl and she'll have already moved on, she'll say _oh, we had fun, but it was never meant to last,_ and Cat will be left shattered and knowing she should never have let herself get in so over her head.

But maybe she won't. Jon and Rhaegar both say the girl is miserable without her, and Cat doesn't want to be glad of that, she wants the girl to always be as happy and strong as she deserves, but – she wants Daenerys to want her. Is that as wrong as she fears it is?

Catelyn could take the risk. She's allowed. She can reach out for the one thing that's made her happier than she's been in years.

But should she?

_Will_ she?


	12. Chapter 12

When Dany sees her on her doorstep again, the girl gives an awkward little half-smile, full of hope and fear. “Catelyn,” she says.

Well, they've not gone back to 'Mrs. Stark'. That's a good sign. “Dany,” Cat says, smiling back just as awkwardly. “I thought... maybe we ought to talk.”

Daenerys nods forcefully. “Yeah, I kept meaning to text you,” she says, and then she looks uncharacteristically shy. “I just... didn't know what to say.”

Catelyn's heart leaps up in her throat. “Well, that's reassuring,” she says, and Dany frowns. “I didn't either,” she elaborates, making it clear she's not being sarcastic, and the girl smiles, relieved. “First of all though, I think I owe you an apology. For... everything.”

“Really, I should be apologising. I started it,” Dany tells her, and Cat frowns. She's not sure that's true. “I was being spoiled and selfish, and I totally overreacted–”

“And I wasn't?”

There's a pause, and then Daenerys sighs. “Maybe we should start from the beginning,” she mutters.

Catelyn nods. “So, can I come in then?”

Dany opens her mouth, as if she's about to say _yes of course,_ but then she stops, and hurriedly looks back over her shoulder. She pulls a face. “Actually, I was just about to leave for class.”

Cat's stomach lurches again, it feels like she's been knocked to the ground, to have this hopeful moment suddenly ruined by something so small, so stupid–

“But I mean, it's like a fifteen minute walk,” Dany says, and then turns to her, nervous. “You could, um, come with me? We can talk on the way.”

And Cat hesitates. _Wasn't not wanted to be seen with her what started this mess?_ Perhaps Daenerys does it on purpose. Perhaps it's a test. Can she walk side by side with the girl, hand in hand perhaps, like – what? Girlfriends? And can she take the risk of being mistaken for mother and daughter?

Is she brave enough?

But Daenerys keeps staring at her, those violet eyes full of youthful idealism, and she nods. “Okay.”

* * *

It's cold. Daenerys wraps herself up in coats and scarves, as per usual, but Catelyn didn't come prepared for this. She shivers in the late autumn air. She's tempted to lean into the girl, to try and siphon off some of her body heat, but she's not sure she's ready to cross that border yet. “So, how was the protest anyway?” she asks.

Dany sighs and shrugs. “I mean, it's hard to tell at this point. You have to wait to see results.” She scowls at the fact, and Catelyn smiles to herself. “But I didn't get arrested, so it could have gone worse.”

“I'm sorry about what I said, you know,” Catelyn tells her, and Dany turns to look at her curiously. “Really, it's a good thing you're willing to stand up for your beliefs. I admire you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you that.”

“Thanks,” Dany smiles at her. “But still, it was dumb of me to try and drag you along. I should have thought–”

“No, it isn't your fault–”

“It's just, I wanted an excuse, I guess. I wanted to be with you, even if I couldn't actually be with you, and making it all about politics seemed like an easy way to do that.” Catelyn frowns. She's not sure she's following. Dany sighs. “From the beginning, I told myself I wasn't going to get in over my head. It couldn't work out, not long-term, so I'd make sure I didn't find myself wanting it to. It's not like I've not done the casual thing before, and usually it's worked out alright. Why wouldn't it this time?”

Catelyn's heart leaps into her throat again. _What is she saying to me? Does this mean..._ But another thought occurs to her. “I used you,” she concludes guiltily.

Daenerys gives her a skeptical look. “Hardly,” she says. “You barely knew what you were doing, and I threw myself at you. I told myself I was helping you out, but really... I wanted you, plain and simple. And I told myself it was just a sex thing, that that would be enough, but it was like – the more I got, the more I wanted.” She pauses. “I've never exactly been good at not getting in over my head.”

“I wanted you too,” Catelyn whispers. “I still want you.”

Dany stops, and blinks at her. Cat blushes faintly. At some point, it turns out they've entered the grounds of the university campus, and are surrounded by a bustling crowd of students. _Great._ Still, she feels she has no choice but to continue.

“I wanted you, but I thought I couldn't have you,” she admits. “I think we may have been coming at this from more similar places than I thought. I tried so hard not to get in over my head too... but I couldn't stop taking what I could. Even though I felt terrible for it.”

“Why?” Dany asks her.

“I thought I didn't deserve you,” she admits. “I still think I don't deserve you. Why would you want to be with a desperate old woman like me?”

And suddenly Dany frowns, then leaps into her arms. Cat jumps at first, but she feels the girl's warmth enveloping her, and she leans into it. “You don't realise how loveable you are, do you?” Dany asks. “How could I not want you?”

Ridiculously, Cat finds tears springing to her eyes. “I suppose not,” she murmurs, and when Daenerys pulls back, she wipes her face. “Come now, let's keep walking. You don't want to be late to class.”

They do so, and as they do, Dany starts chewing her lip. Cat frowns. _Did she pick that habit up from me?_ “So, what happens now?” the girl wonders. “Now you're–”

“Willing to admit I love you?” And she stops. The words just slipped out. And yet, when what she just said registers on Daenerys' face, the girl doesn't look shocked at all. She smiles. Catelyn sighs. “I admit, I'm not quite sure.”

“I mean, it seems to me there are only two options,” Daenerys tells her. “Either we actually make a proper go of it, or we break it off and bury our feelings and waste away pining for each other. And frankly, option two seems far too much of a tragic lesbian cliché for my liking.”

Cat smiles at that. “You make a valid point,” she says. “And really... I guess I've been lucky.” Daenerys looks up at her curiously. “I – let on to someone I might have been seeing a younger person, and – they didn't mind. And I asked Jon for advice, and – he's still a little uncomfortable, but he still gave me his blessing.” She pauses. “Oh, also your brother knows about us. Actually he's known about us the whole time. And he's not murdered me so far, so.”

Daenerys looks like she can hardly keep from giggling. “So basically, after all this time punishing yourself for defiling my precious innocence, it turns out nobody else thinks you've done anything wrong?”

“...More or less.”

Dany breaks out laughing, and Cat tries to be cross, but she can't quite keep from smiling herself. “Right then,” she says, and suddenly she comes to a stop. Catelyn realises they're standing outside a door. “So. This is my lecture hall,” she says, and gives Cat an apologetic look.

Cat nods. She's not so afraid of leaving anymore, now she feels she has for sure a way back. “Alright. But before you go, I wanted to ask you something,” she says, and Daenerys tilts her head to the side. “My work helped out this fancy French restaurant a few weeks back. As a result, we can all request these vouchers from head office for a night there.” She pauses. She realises this is the first time in her life she's actually asked anyone out. “Would you like to go with me?”

A pause, and then Daenerys breaks into a grin, so wide and beaming it lights up her entire face. Cat's heart thumps in her chest. _She is so beautiful_. “Yes. Yes, absolutely. That sounds amazing.”

Cat feels like her smile might break her face apart. “Well then.” And, just before Dany is about to turn and go to class, Catelyn leans down and kisses her.

It's not their first kiss, far from it. It's not much of one anyways, just a peck, a quick, humble gesture of affection. And yet, as a gesture, it means the world. The door swings open behind them as Daenerys' fellow students walk past, but Cat refuses to worry about the fact she's being seen. _Let them think what they want,_ she tells herself. _I want to be with this girl. I_ will _be with this girl._

They part again, and Dany smiles up at her, and Cat smiles back. “You're the worst,” Dany tells her. “How am I meant to focus on Ancient Mesopotamia now?”

Catelyn laughs and kisses her again, on the forehead this time. “I'll see you around.”

As she leaves, she grins to herself, heart still thumping in her chest. She walks with a spring in her step, like a child.

 


	13. Chapter 13

So after that act of deliberate, intoxicating bravery, it's time to do the really brave thing. She has to talk to her children.

“Robb, love,” she says over dinner that evening, roast beef and home made Yorkshire puddings, which is always a sign that she's trying too hard. “Are you going to be home this Friday?” she asks, recalling the night Dany texted her would be best, as in the moment she asked she was too caught up in it all to think to time it properly.

Her son pauses, last mouthful of beef halfway to his mouth. “Er, I should be,” he says, and Cat smiles to herself. “Why?”

Cat hesitates, her eyes dropping down to her plate. She can't chicken out now though. _Well, here goes everything._ “I have a date,” she murmurs.

There's a pause. Then, a squeal.

“Congratulations!” Suddenly Sansa has jumped up from her plate and thrown her arms around her, and Cat jumps in shock. Sansa presses an excited kiss to her cheek. “Oh, I knew you'd figure it out.”

Cat blushes slightly as Sansa extracts herself. “I mean, I wouldn't get too excited,” she says. “It's only the first date. There's plenty of time for things to go horribly wrong yet.”

Sansa just shrugs at that, while the rest of her children seem faintly amused by her sister's excitement – but when she looks at their faces, they mostly look happy for her. Although Robb also looks a little concerned. “So, who is he?” Robb leans forward, slipping into that gruff protective voice he always used whenever Sansa had a boyfriend, and really. “When do we meet him? Is it someone from work?”

Ah, right. They're happy for her to have a boyfriend, but now she has to share all the awkward details that make this a little more complicated. “Er, no,” she admits. “In fact, well – there's been a reason I've not wanted to talk to you all about this. They're... a bit younger than me. A lot younger in fact.” She hesitates. “A-about your age, Robb.”

Robb blinks in confusion, while the rest of her children weigh this up. Cat's heart pounds in her chest. Eventually, Arya is the one to break the silence.

“Younger man, huh?” she says, and gives her mother a respectful nod. “Nice.”

Everyone giggles at that, and Cat flushes again, relieved and yet not entirely so. “Um. It also may not be a man.”

A pause. Catelyn looks up at meets Robb's eyes, and he frowns at her. She's tempted to remind him what a drawn-out and arduous process _his_ coming out was, but that seems unkind.

“Okay, are we all genetically bisexual then?” he asks her. “Because this is getting to be a pattern.”

He smiles as he finishes, and she can't help but smile back. “Possibly,” she admits. “We might have to wait until you're all older to be sure.”

Arya, Bran and Rickon share awkward looks and shrugs then. Meanwhile, Sansa grabs her hand to get her attention again. “Anyway, you have to let me get you ready for the big night,” she declares.

“What?” Cat asks. “Oh, sweetheart, that's really not necessary, I don't even know if–”

“Hey, I have been planning this for _years,_ Mother, your big reemergence into the dating world and even if it's not gone quite as I anticipated, I refuse to miss out on this opportunity–”

* * *

In the end, it is much easier to just go along with Sansa on the issue. To be fair, her daughter does have very good fashion sense, Daenerys probably will be impressed with however Sansa does her up.

Cat practically has to fill in a questionnaire first about where she's going and what sort look they should be going for, before Sansa sits her down and starts painting her face. To wear, Sansa finds a long sleeveless back dress that Cat had honestly forgotten she owed, ankle long and neck high, but tight and form-fitting, with a high slit up the side. “Classy, yet sensual,” Sansa tells her, and Cat blushes and insists it can't possibly fit her anymore. Sansa rolls her eyes and tells her to put it on, and low and behold, it does fit.

Then they return to the make-up, Sansa finishing her look with purple lipstick, the same lipstick she wore to that party months ago, and it's enough to make her wonder if Sansa – who suspected her of seeing Rhaegar, after all, and now knows that she's actually seeing a much younger woman – knows who it is she's about to go on her date with. Cat's not quite brave enough to ask though. Not yet.

Sansa insists she wear her hair loose over her shoulders, and when Cat protests the potential of getting hair in her food, Sansa sighs and grabs a jewelled silver hairband to keep it back, and to match the silver sandals Catelyn also didn't know she owned. “There,” Sansa says, looking over her work admiringly. “You're ready.”

“It's cold out, love,” Cat reminds her. “I'll need a coat.” She quickly grabs her white one, and Sansa opens her mouth, but quickly concedes to the practicality of weather.

Quickly, Cat looks in the mirror. She bites her lip. She _does_ look good – _Sansa's very talented,_ she thinks immediately, but maybe it's more than that. Maybe she really is as beautiful as Dany says.

“Mum, you look amazing,” Robb immediately tells her as she comes downstairs, and he grins and throws his arms around her. Then he pulls back. “You're going to be okay tonight, right?” he asks. “You'll make it back home in one piece. You can call if you need anything–”

“Robb, I'm thirty-eight,” she laughs at him. “I can look after myself.”

A pause, then he sighs and smiles and kisses her forehead. “I know. I suppose I just feel like I ought to play protector.”

She returns his smile. “Thank you,” she says.

“Good luck, Mum,” says Bran, wheeling up beside her. He gives her a cheeky grin. “I'd tell you to be responsible and make good choices and all, but I think you might get cross.”

She flushes, and then huffs slightly at him. “Yes. I would.” But he grins wider then, and she can't bring herself to be mad.

“'Sides, you already have a living reminder to be responsible and make good choices,” Arya points out.

“Oi,” says Robb, while Cat just makes an annoyed noise.

From behind her, Sansa walks forward and peaks out the window. “So, is she going to pick you up or...?”

Seemingly, her children are content to let her date remain an anonymous 'she', at least for now. “Er, no,” Cat says. “I was going to drive over to hers, and then we'd head to the restaurant.” Dany lives much closer to it, after all – living in a flat just off campus means she's closer to most businesses.

Sansa turns around, frowning at the ensemble she chose for her mother, perhaps thinking that if she knew this detail she would have chosen something more practical for driving. But then she shrugs. “The dress has a slit, you should be okay.”

Cat will take her word for it. “Alright. So, off I go?”

“What, no, absolutely not!” Sansa exclaims. “I have to get photos first!”

“What – sweetheart, that's not–” but Sansa has her phone out and clicks it in Catelyn's face before she can even finish her sentence. She sighs. “You know, I am the mother, you are the children. I am the one who's meant to get awkward and embarrassing about you going on dates, not the other way around.”

“Hey, we're a family,” Bran tells her. “We all pitch in to embarrass each other 'round here.”

At that, Cat rolls her eyes and leans over to kiss his forehead. Then, she resigns herself to staying still as Sansa takes as many pictures as pleases her. Then, she is finally free to go.

As she opens the front door, however, she hesitates a moment. She closes her eyes to muster her courage. “Off I go,” she says.

“Bye!” her children's voices ring out in unison.

 


	14. Chapter 14

Daenerys, when Cat sees her, wears pure white, a cowl neck across her bosom, skirt short – the hem halfway up her thigh. It's too cold to just leave her legs bear however, so she also wears opaque white stockings, leaving just a sliver of skin between the hem of her dress and the bands of them. Cat bites her lip as she can't help but stare. “Typical,” she mutters. “Always have to show me up, don't you?”

The girl laughs and leans up on her toes to kiss her, rather thoroughly given this is technically their first date. “I wouldn't say that,” Dany says, smirking as they break apart. “But I suppose it depends on your tastes. Still, I don't know many people would kick either of us out of bed.”

Cat flushes slightly, nonplussed, and yet charmed by how Dany can be so blasé about her own attractiveness. It's not like she's _wrong_. “Well, quite,” she coughs awkwardly.

Dany grins and kisses her cheek, chastely this time. “You look incredible,” she says. “In case that wasn't clear.”

Really, for all the times Dany's told her that, it never quite stops making her embarrassed. But in a good way. “I'll take your word for it,” she mutters.

Daenerys finally returns her heels to the floor, and then looks back over her shoulder. “So, should we get a move on?” she asks. “You don't want to be late for over reservation.”

Cat raises an eyebrow at her. “You'd best put a coat on first,” she says. “If I'm going to date a girl half my age, damned if I'm having her die of hypothermia on me.”

“Yes miss,” Dany drawls, quickly grabbing a long black trench coat off a hook, and Cat pauses. The joke does draw attention to her age, it can't be denied. Still, at least Dany didn't say 'yes, mum' which would be much more uncomfortable. And the more she thinks about it, it does not bother her as much as it maybe should. Especially when Dany wraps that coat around her waist, and it's so huge on her tiny frame that it's easy to imagine she's not wearing anything underneath. Cat bites her lip. _Come now, be responsible. You have dinner first, and then you can have sex._

“Right,” she says, offering her hand to Dany, and the girl grins and takes it as they move out to the car.

Daenerys only very reluctantly lets go so Cat can drive, and as soon as she starts the ignition, she feels a hand resting gently on her thigh. She pauses and gives the girl a skeptical look. “Are you not planning on letting go of me any time soon then?”

“Absolutely not,” Dany grins at her. “I'm going to be completely obnoxious with the PDA tonight too. It'll be insufferable.”

Cat sighs, and yet she can't help but smile as she refocuses on the road, puts her foot down on the accelerator, doing her best to ignore Dany's soft touch, even as she doesn't move the hand away. “Well, at least you've warned me.”

* * *

Luckily, Daenerys is well-behaved enough that they make it to the restaurant without an accident, and when they step inside, Cat is immediately struck by the look of the place. She knew it was a French restaurant, but she wasn't quite expecting it to be such a French restaurant, complete with moody red walls, abundant candlelight, and Edith Piaf playing in the background. “Wow,” says Dany, which Cat can agree with. The girl smiles at her. “Well this is fancy.”

Cat smiles back. “I hope you don't think it's too cliché,” she says. “I know you like to be original.”

Daenerys laughs at that. “Maybe, but I'm not going to turn down a little romancing when it turns up,” she says. “Besides, most of the people I've gone out with have been broke-ass uni students. Cliché or not, it's nice to get pampered by someone who isn't my mother or brother.”

“Oh good,” says Cat, and then a waiter approaches them.

“Hello ladies,” he says, broad Geordie accent somewhat mismatching the general feel of the place. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, we had a reservation for seven-thirty,” Cat tells him. “For two?”

The waiter nods and leads them over to a table by the wall, tucked behind a flowering pot plant. “Would you and your sister like to take a look at our drinks menu?” he asks.

Cat frowns. _Sisters?_ But then she realises, with embarrassment, he probably thinks she's Daenerys' mother, and is just trying to flatter her into tipping him better. She supposes she can fault him for that, but she still blushes slightly. Either way though, Dany has a different take on it, quickly reaching across the table to grab Catelyn's hand again.

“Oh, we're not sisters,” she tells him. “This is a date. We're dating.”

Cat blushes deeper. “Dany,” she warns. She appreciates Dany's politics, understands why the girl would want to make that clear, but she's never been great at sharing her personal life with strangers.

For his part, their waiter looks almost as embarrassed as she is. “Oh. I'm so sorry,” he says, and then pauses. “So um. Drinks?”

“I'll just have a glass of merlot,” says Cat, and for a second she ponders how boring her taste in wine is, but then Dany says she'll have the same and the waiter walks away with a nod and perhaps a sigh of relief.

After he's gone, Dany turns to her, looking slightly regretful. “You don't think I was too harsh on him, do you?”

Cat frowns, and shakes her head. “No. No you were direct, but not rude,” she says. “I'm just easily embarrassed, I'm afraid.”

“Don't be afraid. You're cute when you blush,” Dany tells her, and Cat chuckles. “Anyway, like I know he meant well, but it is endemic of a certain level of heterosexism in the community, that he assumes to women who come here together must be relatives and can't be a couple, right?”

“...I think I only know what half those words mean,” Cat says, and Dany laughs. “Anyway: probably, but mostly I'm just relieved he didn't think I was your mother.” She pauses. “Or if he did, he was nice enough to pretend he didn't.”

Dany raises an eyebrow at her. “You know, it wouldn't be that implausible for us to be sisters,” she says. “Given you're five years younger than my actual brother.”

“...Okay, fair point,” Cat says and then sighs.

“But like, if I'm going out with you then I want people to know about it,” Dany tells her. “I've never been one for false modesty. I am going to gloat like hell.”

Cat laughs and fills up her water glass. “You know, we've already had sex plenty of times,” she points out. “You don't have to work this hard to charm me into putting out on the first date.”

“Maybe not,” Dany tells her, eyes twinkling. “But it's fun.”

* * *

Cat orders a plate of oysters for starters, and Dany raises an eyebrow as she holds one shell up to her mouth to scoop the flesh out with her tongue. “Tease,” the girl comments.

She pauses. “I like seafood,” she says, and honestly she didn't think of how it would look, eating out of a shell like this, before ordering, but perhaps she does play it up a little after Daenerys points it out. Dany just chuckles and runs her foot briefly up Catelyn's shin, and really, she's one to talk about teasing.

Between starters and mains, Daenerys decides to tell her: “So, I told my mother about us.”

Cat pauses. “Oh?” she asks, her voice jumping an octave, and then she hurriedly reaches for her wineglass.

Dany smiles wryly at her. “It didn't go that badly, relax,” she says, and Cat takes a gulp of her wine before sighing. “I mean, she's maybe not _thrilled_ , but she is trying to be open minded,” and Cat supposes that's the best she can expect. “Anyway, she wants to meet you.”

Catelyn frowns. “She has met me.”

“Yeah, but she wants to do so properly. You know, in the capacity of Dany's New Girlfriend. Basically she wants to put the fear of god into you.”

A pause, and then Cat sighs again. “Fair enough, I suppose,” she says, already mentally working on her answers to the inevitable grilling she'll receive. At the very least, being such an overprotective mother figure herself, she should know what Rhaella will ask her. It should be easy enough to practice.

Daenerys smiles at her, then bites her lip. “So, have you talked to your children...?”

Catelyn hesitates. “Yes and no,” and the way Dany frowns at her makes her feel awful. “I told them I was seeing a much younger woman, and they were all very supportive. I just haven't told them exactly who yet. I will though. I promise.”

She quickly reaches across the table and grabs Dany's hand again, and Dany smiles, while Cat sighs. “I'm sorry this has all been so hard on you,” Cat finds herself blurting out. “Waiting for me to deal with my existential crises. That wasn't fair of me.”

Daenerys simply shrugs at that. “Well, maybe not, but I feel like it all worked out in the end. You heard the lady,” she says, and then tilts her head to where the gramophone – and yes, this is the sort of place where they play records on gramophone, technology she didn't experience the first time around – is still playing Edith Piaf. “ _Je ne regrette rien._ ”

Cat smiles at that, and then pauses. “Hang on, did we just discover a song we both actually know?”

Dany blinks, and then bursts out laughing. “So we did,” she says. “To be fair, I think Edith predates us both a bit.”

“Well Billy Joel released _Only the Good_ two years before I was born, and you had no idea what I was talking about then,” Cat points out.

“Hey, that's your fault for listening to music that's decades older than you,” Dany tells her, and Cat sighs. “I mean, you grew up in the nineties. One day, I'll talk you into singing the Spice Girls at karaoke with me.”

Catelyn narrows her eyes. “You absolutely will not.” She may have let the girl tie her to the bed and fuck her with a ten-inch strap-on until she screamed, multiple times, but she has _some_ dignity dammit.

Dany just grins at her. “Oh, it'll happen. You'll see.”

* * *

Eventually, they finish their meal, pay the bill and leave a tip for their unfortunate nervous waiter, and step outside. As soon as they do, Cat pauses, struck by how much colder it suddenly is – and it wasn't warm before. She pulls her coat around herself, but it's more designed for late spring than early winter.

Then, as she looks around, she realises something. “It's snowing.”

“...So it is,” Dany echoes her. It's not much, just a light dusting, it will probably pass within half an hour, but it's there. Catelyn can feel the flakes melting on her cheeks. She turns to look at Dany, the snow matching her hair and her dress, lips going blue with cold and her breath turning to smoke in the air, like those dragons she loves so much. _She's wonderful._ And Daenerys grins at her, before throwing her arms around her neck and kissing her fiercely on the mouth.

Catelyn groans and kisses back, warming the girl's mouth with her own. Dany's body presses against her through their coats and Cat pulls her closer, suddenly overwhelmed with a rush of possessiveness – she wants the girl to be _hers_ , and for everyone to know it. She never wants to worry that they're not meant to be together again.

Eventually they pull apart, Dany still grinning. “I've always wanted to do that,” she says, and perhaps it's not quite how she last described kissing Catelyn in the snow, but it's close, given the urban heat island effect. “See, your Catholic god is totally down with us. He sent the weather to help.”

Cat laughs at that. “I'll be sure to thank him next time I pray.” Admittedly, she's still not sure how she's going to explain that she's sleeping with a girl half her age to her priest, but she'll figure it out.

A gust of wind then hits them, and Dany shivers in her arms. “Though I am really cold now,” she pouts.

Catelyn laughs, wiping the snowflakes off the girl's nose. “Come on, to the car. You have a nice nose, I'd rather you not lose it.”

They walk over to Cat's giant SUV. “This is just your cunning scheme to get me to go home with you, isn't it?” she teases as she opens the door, and clambers up into the passenger seat. “So, your place or mine?” she grins as Cat sits down next to her. “Come on, back to the apartment.”

Catelyn hesitates. Maybe, maybe this isn't the best way of doing things, but it would make it all terribly simple.

“Actually,” she asks, “would you like to come back to my place?”

 


	15. Chapter 15

The ride home is just long enough for Catelyn to start thinking this must be a bad idea. Dany starts looking uncharacteristically nervous as well as they pull up outside the Stark family home, waiting by her side as Cat struggles with the lock. “Do you think they'll be up?” Dany asks her.

Cat hesitates. “I don't know,” she says as she turns her key. She's not sure if it would be a relief or not if the kids were all already in bed.

When they step inside, the hall and living room are dark and silent. “Well they're not here,” she says, voice automatically dropping to a whisper, like she's a teenager sneaking her boyfriend in through the back window.

“Hmm,” is Dany's answer, clearly not convinced, and Cat sighs as she turns around to face the girl. So, where do they go from here?

“Can I offer you a drink?” she asks awkwardly. Dany grins.

“If you like.”

A pause, then Cat flushes slightly before heading off to the kitchen.

Of course, as soon as she steps into the kitchen the lights come on and she's greeted with a rousing chorus.

“Hi Mum!”

She blinks, thrown by the sudden flood of light, trying to regain her balance. It takes a moment to register her children sitting in front of her, looking on expectantly. She sighs at them. “You lot have been up waiting for me all night, haven't you?”

“Yep,” Arya announces proudly.

“Except Rickon, he flaked it about an hour ago,” Robb adds. “But he's just a kid, we're not planning on bringing it up.”

“Speak for yourself,” Bran mutters.

Catelyn sighs deeply, and then she hears another voice. “Cat? Is everything okay?”

Dany comes and joins them in the kitchen and all eyes turn to her. Standing in the doorway, she freezes, awkward grin upon her face. “Er. Hi guys.”

“...Hi?” Arya asks. “What are you doing here?”

“Did Jon send you over for something?” Bran adds, which really, is not the worst assumption he could make. Cat feels herself turning the colour of a tomato.

“Er, no,” she says, dropping her eyes to the kitchen floor. “She's with me, actually.”

There's a long, tense silence, and when Cat finally manages to raise her eyes to look at the kids again, she can see it still registering on their faces. “...Oh,” Robb eventually concludes.

“Actually, that explains a _lot_ ,” Sansa says, and then slowly, Cat sees a smile spread across her face.

Bran looks back and forth between the two of them suspiciously. “Jon knew about this, didn't he?”

Cat's jaw drops open. “I – how do you know that?!”

He shrugs. “Well, he's been acting weird for ages and always muttering whenever we start talking about family gatherings. Now I know why.”

Catelyn lets out a deep sigh. Given how understanding Jon's been about the whole thing, she supposes that's fair enough. Besides her, Dany lets out a laugh. “I'm sorry, he wasn't meant to find out first. That was an accident,” she explains, and Cat blushes even deeper when she remembers that incredibly awkward situation. “I hope you're all alright with this, though. I know your mother's been very worried about upsetting you.”

There's a pause, and Cat watches as her children look back and forth at her, at Dany, at one another. Her heart leaps into her throat. _Well, moment of truth._

“I mean, we know you, so this is something of a relief,” Robb announces. “You don't seem likely to break her heart. And if you do, you're tiny, I can probably take you.”

Dany laughs at that. “Oh, you wanna go Stark? I wouldn't go making any assumptions.”

Robb grins and Cat, maybe a little jealous, nudges Daenerys gently. “Hey,” she whispers.

“Anyway, we were all going to go to the basement and watch one of those obnoxious action movies Theon's always leaving here. Really loud!” Sansa announces suddenly, leaping to her feet.

“Wait, what?” Robb asks, and Sansa just rolls her eyes and grabs him by the collar.

“Come on, this way.”

Robb is dragged off toward the basement and Bran and Arya follow, leaving Cat and Dany all alone in the kitchen. Cat stares after them, bemused, while Dany gently lays a hand on her shoulder.

“So, was that as bad as you feared?”

Cat sighs, turning around to face the girl again. “No,” she admits. “But to be fair, few things in life are.”

Dany chuckles, and leans in to kiss her again. Cat moans softly and parts her lips as Daenerys leans against her, running fingers through her soft blonde hair. She finds herself pushed up against the kitchen council, Dany's hand's running down her sides, teeth nipping her bottom lip teasingly.

Cat pulls away, panting slightly. “You know, my children have been very understanding about all this,” she points out, before she loses control of herself. “I should probably show that same respect and not fuck you right in the middle of our kitchen.”

With a smile, Daenerys pulls back, giving her room to move. “Right then,” she says. “Well: after you.”

* * *

When Cat finally closes the door to her bedroom behind them, Daenerys stops for a second, looking around and taking it in, and Cat gets unnecessarily nervous. “I'm afraid it's not much,” she says.

Dany raises an eyebrow at her. “It's bigger than my room,” she points out.

“True, but I'm afraid it's a little spartan,” Cat says, and Dany smiles at her.

“You worry too much.”

And Cat chuckles as Dany leans up on her tiptoes to peck her on the lips. “Did you just realise that?” she asks.

Daenerys laughs and kisses her again, longer this time, winding her arms around Catelyn's neck. “Come on, let's get you out of this dress,” she whispers. “Sansa clearly put a lot of effort into doing you up tonight, I'd hate to get it messy.”

“Liar,” Cat says, but then she turns around. “You might have to help me with the zip.”

“Of course.” And Cat catches glimpse of herself in her mirror as the hears the signature sound of the teeth unlocking, and Dany's soft fingers tracing down her spine. She remembers their first abortive attempt at this back at Rhaegar and Rhaella's house, full of nerves and confusion, when she wore this same lipstick. The dress is tight-fitting enough that Dany has to pull at it a little to make it fall down to the ground, but she manages, revealing lacy black underwear beneath – although the effect is a little spoiled by the waistband of her pantyhose obscuring her knickers. That's not terrible attractive. Still, Daenerys presses a soft kiss to the inside of her neck. “You're still gorgeous, you know.”

Catelyn smiles and tilts her head to the side. “You've said.” Then she turns back around. “Okay, your turn.”

Daenerys appears a little surprised at first, but she accepts with a smile, easily lifting her white dress up over her head. Cat moves away to sit on the edge of the bed, both so she can kick her sandals off and peel off her tights, and so she can get a better look at Dany from head to toe. The girl is braless beneath her dress, of course she is, long platinum waves spilling down her chest, and just the barest scrap of white lace conceals her between her legs. Cat bites her lip.

At the look on her face, Dany grins, twirling around a little to show off. “You like?”

“I do,” Cat answers, unsubtly pressing with the heel of her hand at her clit. Dany keeps smiling as she drops her underwear down to the floor, and then reaches for the cuff of her stockings. “No,” Cat says. “Keep those on.”

The girl stops, taken aback. Cat knows it's not like her to give orders. She's spent this whole time always following Dany's lead, letting herself be commanded, afraid that if she was in control then she'd be responsible for something she wasn't sure she could justify to herself. But now, something has changed. A wild greed has overtaken her, the need to simply _take_ whatever she can get of this gorgeous young woman, without fear or hesitation.

She gets to her feet, and Daenerys bites her lip as Cat slowly approaches her, prowling almost panther-like towards the girl, in her blacks and her wild spirit. Dany gasps as Cat drops to her knees in front of her, immediately spreading her feet to give Cat room to access her cunt.

Cat kisses the inside of the girl's thigh first though, sucking long and hard enough she might just leave a mark, while with one hand she reaches round and grabs the girl's arse, firm and round and perfect, and squeezes tight. Dany gasps and bucks slightly toward her. “Cat.”

Then she moves her mouth over to the girl's cunt, circling Dany's clit delicately with her tongue, earning a groan as hands fold through her hair and try to pull her closer. “Tease.”

Cat just laughs at that, which only makes Daenerys tremble more against her mouth. She pulls back. “Patience, sweetheart,” she says, licking the salty taste off her lips, and Dany lets out a little obstinate huff before Catelyn returns her mouth to where it was and licks at her thoroughly this time, two fingers coming up to run along her folds, and Dany groans and lets Catelyn do what she will then.

There's a gasp and then a mewl as Cat slowly pushes her fingers inside, curling them to find that spot that makes Dany whine and thrust down toward her, and a sort of pride overtakes her then: she is no longer the middle-aged woman who'd never even kissed a girl, who'd only ever been with the one man, who had to rely on a girl half her age to show her what to do. She knows what she's doing, and she knows how to make Daenerys moan. And moan she does as Catelyn starts to fuck her properly with her fingers, so loud that Catelyn has to pull back again, a little concerned.

“Shh,” she whispers. “You don't want my children to hear you.”

It's not as if they couldn't guess what she brought Daenerys here to do – that's presumably why Sansa dragged everyone to the basement, after all – but she doesn't want to traumatise them anymore than necessary. Dany gives a little huff of annoyance, but when Catelyn returns her mouth to where it was before, the girl covers her own mouth with her hand so she won't shout too loud.

Catelyn keeps going, faster and faster, sliding her tongue in alongside her fingers before returning to licking over Dany's folds, tasting the girl's juices, rich and tart and sweet and she moans herself then, overwhelmed with lust, and Dany gasps as her knees tremble, and she tugs Cat's hair roughly.

“Cat, we ought to move to the bed,” the girl tells her. “Unless you want me to break my back.”

Cat pauses. “...Right you are,” she says, a little sheepish, and she winces as she gets back on her feet. Daenerys gives her a concerned look. “Are you okay?”

“My knees could be better,” Cat admits. “Don't worry about it. Go, lie on the bed.”

Dany grins and does just that, spreading her legs shamelessly and making space for Cat to crawl in between. Catelyn doesn't touch her, not at first, she just looms overhead and lets her eyes run up and down Dany's naked body, the silver glint in her navel and the colourful tattoo on her thigh, drinking in the sight. _She's mine,_ she thinks greedily. Softly, she lets her fingers circle Dany's clit again, making the girl squirm as she tries to get Cat to move faster, and Cat smiles. “You know, you have the sweetest cunt in the world,” she leans in to whisper in Dany's ear, the taste of her still on her lips.

The response is a strange noise that could be a laugh, could be a moan, as Dany arches off her bed. “How many cunts have you tasted?” Dany teases her, and Cat frowns before reaching down and pinching the girl's inner thigh, just above the cuff of her stocking, hard. “Ow!”

“Careful,” she chides, and Daenerys huffs at her again. Catelyn makes it up to her by kissing her again, letting her taste what she's talking about. “See,” she says as they pull apart. “Isn't that sweet?”

“I mean, it's not bad,” Dany tells her, still smiling. “But it's nowhere near as sweet as you.”

Cat raises an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Dany grins at her. “Come on, turn around. I want a taste.”

She half-understands what Daenerys means by that, but if she's right, she thinks it's a good idea. Before she knows it she's facing the other way, her head perched above Dany's cunt again, while the girl slowly draws her knickers down to her knees and licks along the inside of her thigh. Cat gasps, catching her own eye in the mirror in front of her.

Well, there's no point wasting time. She quickly bobs her head and returns to what she was doing before, stroking along Dany's slit with her fingers while licking around the places she touches. Dany moans and squirms a little, but quickly returns the favour, her tongue hot and wild as she mouths Catelyn's cunt, sucking her clit ruthlessly, making Cat unable to repress a little squeal of delight. It's strange at this angle, and her wrist trembles to keep herself upright, but she can't resist the shiver Dany's mouth sends through her hole body, nor the fluid dripping onto her lips, and so she licks and sucks at this girl's cunt like it's the sweetest treat she's ever had, and Dany does the same for her, and it's like they're locked together, bound in pleasure and longing, needing more of each other, swallowing every drop they can get.

Before long Dany is moaning against her cunt again, and Cat can't pull away long enough to tell her to quieten down, so she just hopes it's muffled enough no-one will hear. Then when she's not expecting it suddenly a finger slides into her arse, crooks hard and fast, just as Dany sucks her hardest at her cunt and it catches Catelyn so off guard that she cries out, loud enough for anybody to here, and then Dany laughs against her and it sets her whole body trembling as her orgasm overtakes her, hard, fast and brutal, making her mewl, humping frantically against Dany's face and moaning, “oh _god_.”

Eventually the pleasure fades, and Dany chuckles as she ceases her ministrations over Catelyn's pulsing cunt, slowly sliding the finger out of her arse. Cat sighs deeply, then raises her head, looking back over her shoulder to glare. “Cheat,” she says.

Dany raises an eyebrow. “You love it,” she points out.

“That's why it's cheating,” Cat tells her, and quickly turns back around, kissing the girl again before she can come up with a response. Dany moans into her mouth, tasting herself on Catelyn's lips again. “But don't worry. I'll see you pay for it.”

Dany moans, arching her back off the bed as Cat's two fingers find her cunt and slip in, easily. “Oh, will I?” she grins, thrusting back towards Cat's hand.

Cat lets out a little huff. “Yes, you will.” She slams a third finger inside, fast enough Daenerys cries out in shock. She clearly catches the girl off guard, but she's so wet she stretches to accommodate it easily. “I'll do what I want with you,” Catelyn tells her, and she wonders what's come over her.

The girl gasps and pants as Cat starts to fingerfuck her hard, but she's still smiling. “That doesn't sound so bad.”

Cat doesn't answer that, she just keeps slamming her fingers inside harder and faster as Daenerys moans and spreads her legs ever wider. “Yes, yes,” the girl gasps, her wet cunt practically sucking Catelyn in, her legs up in the air as she rocks back towards the fingers. “Oh, yes, yes, more!”

Catelyn kisses her again, rough and demanding and halfway through it Dany bites her lip and mewls, and when Cat pulls away she realises she's added a forth finger – gods, Dany is so small, how can she even take that, but the girl clearly loves it. “Oh yes, yes, fuck!” Dany keeps moaning against her mouth as Cat keeps kissing her to keep her quiet, and she gradually slows down the pace of her thrusts, still driving her fingers in hard, but not so often, enough to make Dany pant and whine between movements. Slowly, she circles Dany's clit with her thumb. Dany gasps. Then, Catelyn pulls back, and looks the girl in the eye. “Would you like more, sweetheart?”

_What am I doing?_ she thinks, some part of her coming to its senses, but clearly not a big enough part of her. Dany is so small, it won't ever work, she's going to break the girl – Daenerys hasn't even done that to her, though she's fantasised about it, and Cat's the one who's vagina has been through birthing five children.

And yet, when Dany gets what she means, her eyes go wide, and she grins. “Do you want to fist me?” she whispers, almost shocked.

Cat's not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed. “Yes,” she admits, somewhat guiltily. “Yes, I want to fist you.”

Daenerys moans and throws her head back, closing her eyes and spreading her legs even wider on Catelyn's grand wide bed. “Well go on then, do it,” she says. “Do what you want with me.”

Cat bites her lip, barely suppressing a moan. How is she meant to say no to that?

So she gives it her best try, at first splaying the fingers inside Dany wide, seeing how far she can stretch. Dany mewls at that and Cat quickly circles the girl's clit again, making her shiver. “Shh, it'll be okay.”

Dany laughs. “I'm not afraid,” she says.

Catelyn raises an eyebrow at her. “You have no sense of self-preservation.”

Dany just shrugs at that, as if to say, _fair enough_. Slowly, Cat contorts her hand into some sort of triangle configuration, hoping that will help it slide in easier. When she presses her thumb to where her fingers are already stretching Dany wide, the girl gasps, and Catelyn leans down, kissing above where she's breaching. Dany moans beneath her, and Catelyn feels nervous and worried, but also absurdly pleased with herself.

When she actually tries to slide her thumb inside, Dany makes a pained noise, and so she pulls back immediately. It takes until about the third try until she actually manages to fit the length of her fingernail in, and Dany moans as she twists back and forth on the bed. Cat bites her lip. “Dany? Is that okay?”

“ _Yes,_ ” is the answer she gets, hissed in need and lust as Dany clutches tight around all five fingers. “More. I want it.”

_Well then._

Cat sighs deeply as she slowly tries to spread the girl open, earning louder and wilder cries every time. _Surely, the kids will hear that,_ she thinks, and there's nothing blocking her mouth now, but she finds her just can't ask Daenerys to be quiet. Not right now. So she sucks at the girl's clit again, making her moan as Cat's fingers spread her wider, wider, wider.

When Cat has her hand buried down to the knuckle, she stops and pulls back, taking a second to admire her work. Dany pants, rocking towards her, and Catelyn suddenly looks upon her face, eyes screwed shut. “Dany?” she asks. _I must be hurting her._ “How does that feel?”

“ _Good_ ,” Daenerys moans, long, low and desperate, before she starts rocking onto Cat's hand faster. “I feel so full, I feel so stretched, I feel – _jesus_ –”

Cat can't help but laugh. “I'm not sure he would approve,” she says, and Dany cracks open an eye before laughing too. A flush rises to Cat's cheeks when she thinks of how dirty this is, how depraved, and it drives her wild. Slowly, she pushes her fingers even deeper into Daenerys. “More?”

Dany just gasps and nods, while Cat keeps going, pushing in as deep as she can. In the end, she can't get her whole fist in, she can barely get past her knuckles, but she supposes that's pretty good for a first attempt. Anyway, Daenerys doesn't complain, thrusting back harder and faster as Catelyn grows brave enough to move her hand properly, letting out long streams of curses and blasphemies to express her pleasure. Her hand grabs Cat's hair and pulls, hard.

Cat just hums in contentment against the girl's cunt, and when she pushes her fingers a millimetre too far and mouths at just the right spot, Dany practically fucking screams, and she tightens so much Cat worries she might lose some fingers, then she realises the girl is coming, hard and desperate, and she keeps lapping at the girl through it, slowly pulling her fingers out one at a time.

Dany moans through the aftershocks, and when Cat leaves her empty, she quickly kisses the girl's cunt properly, pushing her down inside as if she's kissing away the pain. Dany lets out a long, shuddering sigh, and Cat raises her head. “Are you okay?”

Daenerys, hazy-eyed, smiles at her. “Fuck.” Catelyn frowns. “That means yes, by the way.”

Cat's not sure she follows that logic, but still, she quickly makes her way back up the bed and takes the girl into her arms, as Dany always does for her after fucking her so hard she barely knows her own name. “I hope it didn't bother you,” she mutters, and finds herself inexplicably blushing. “Me suddenly taking control like that.” She still doesn't know what came over her.

“Not at all,” Daenerys grins at her, and then lets out a hiss of pain. Cat frowns. “Alright, I might make you carry me from place to place tomorrow if I prove incapable of walking. But apart from that – while I might not want that every night, it's nice to change things around every now and again. Besides, I'm sure I can pay you back.” She smirks, and Cat raises an eyebrow. “Don't think I've forgotten how curious you looked when you found my bad dragon dildo, Cat.”

Cat blushes deeper at that, but then she remembers that she did tell Daenerys she wasn't yet brave enough for that. _And now I might be._ “Very well,” she sighs, and draws the girl closer to her. “Would you like me to go get you some water or something?”

“Absolutely not,” Daenerys says, her hands tightening over Cat's hips possessively. “You're staying right here where I can cuddle you.”

Cat can't help but smile at that, letting the girl rest against her bosom. For a second Cat thinks she's drifted off, but then the girl sighs. “Actually, I should get up and head back to the flat, huh?”

Catelyn makes a noise of protest. “Absolutely not,” she says, immediately slipping into her motherly voice. “It's at least one in the morning. You are staying right where you are, young lady.”

A pause, then Daenerys grins at her. “You know, I love it when you call me young lady.”

Cat blinks at her a second, and then flushes, awkward. Dany clearly notices her discomfort, and then starts trying to backtrack. “I mean, if you're comfortable with it. If not–”

“No, it's fine, it's–” Cat sighs. She's still not sure how often she wants to be reminded that the girl is so much younger than her. But she's going to have to get used to it, if they're going to be together. She is, slowly, getting used to it. And if Daenerys likes it, well, that doesn't hurt. “We'll see.”

A pause, then Dany smiles at her, before leaning her chin back over Cat's shoulder. Cat sighs and lets her fingers run through the girl's hair, and she stares out the window, watching the snow she thought would have cleared up by now drift onto the windowsill.

“It feels strange,” she muses. “Having someone other than Ned in this bed.”

Dany pauses, and looks up at her again, questioning. Cat opens her mouth, cursing herself for having said something so awkward. “I mean, I don't feel guilty,” she says and she thinks it's true. “I know Ned would want me to be happy. And I am happy, I am so happy with you.” She cups Daenerys' jaw softly, and slowly, the girl smiles again. Cat sighs. “I'm just still getting used to it, that's all.”

The girl raises an eyebrow. “You know what helps with that?” she says. “Practice.”

Catelyn laughs. “I see. Well, you're not wrong.”

Dany grins and curls up against her neck again, quickly falling asleep. Cat smiles to herself as she holds the young woman in her arms. Yes, it does feel strange. But it doesn't feel _wrong._

 


	16. Chapter 16

Cat wakes up the next morning alone in the bed, and frowns. For a second she wonders if she dreamed the whole thing – last night, and perhaps, the last three months.

Then she hears some commotion from the kitchen.

She sits up, and then shivers, realising she is still naked and it is freezing. When she turns her head and glances out the window, she sees the pane covered with clusters of white. It didn't stop snowing after all.

Quickly she pulls on her tracksuit bottoms, a skivvy and jumper, and heads downstairs to see what's going on.

"Well I want fencing lessons, Dad was always telling me he'd sign me up for them some day but he never got around to it, so now I'm probably majorly behind–”

“You're a physical family, aren't you?”

The children are all crowded around the kitchen table, and Daenerys is sitting there with them, while Arya is telling her something and she looks amused as she writes things down on the back of an old supermarket receipt. She seems to be sitting remarkably straight, considering. Cat blushes when she remembers what she did to the girl last night, but also she's a little proud.

“Hi Mum!” Bran suddenly calls, and Cat jumps a little when they notice her, heads turning towards the stairs.

Daenerys breaks into a grin, and quickly hops to her feet, walking over to kiss Cat on the cheek. Cat is a caught a little off her guard by such a casual, public display of affection, but she doesn't protest. It's nice. “Morning Cat,” the girl tells her, only wincing a little when she realises she shouldn't have gotten up so quickly, and Cat bites her lip not to smirk. “I thought I'd get up early to make everyone pancakes.”

Cat raises an eyebrow at that, her eyes drifting over to the half-blackened spludge on Dany's plate, and the nice fluffy pancakes on everyone else's. Dany blushes. “Well, I tried. Then Sansa came in and took pity on me.”

“I figured it wouldn't be a great end to the first date if she burnt our house down,” Sansa tells her, and Cat smiles. Fair enough.

“I think that was sweet,” she says, and kisses the top on Dany's head, making her grin. Then she walks over to the table and takes a seat, and looks up to the clock overhead. It's about a quarter to eleven. She frowns. “It's late.”

“We figured we'd let you sleep in for once. The kids told me you didn't have work,” Dany says. “I hope you didn't think I'd run out on you. I would have brought you some food, but this lot distracted me.”

“We're making a list of ways, as our new stepmother, she can buy our love,” Bran tells her, and Cat raises an eyebrow. Given they've been on one date, it's probably a bit premature for them to label Dany their stepmother. And yet, Cat can't bring herself to try and dissuade them.

“So far, Bran wants a new telescope, Arya wants fencing lessons, Sansa just wants to go ice-skating and – Rickon?”

Rickon grins at her. “Karate!” he announces.

Dany chuckles. “See? Family of bloody athletes.”

Cat just shakes her head as she helps herself to some of Sansa's pancakes. “Swear, it's not from my side of the family. Must be Ned's fault.” Then she realises just how much sugar Rickon is pouring onto his pancakes, onto his second tablespoon, and she raises an eyebrow again. “Rickon, darling, don't you have enough there?”

“Oh, leave him be,” Dany says. “he's a kid, you know how kids feel about sweets.”

Cat turns her head and squints at her suspiciously. “I see. You're going to use your position as new stepmother to spoil them all rotten and make it impossible for me to enforce any discipline?”

“Yep,” Dany grins at her, and Cat sighs.

“Hey, if it bothers you that much, I'm willing to show up and be a hard-ass when you need,” and Cat jumps a mile when suddenly someone grabs a pear from the fruitbowl by her side, and she turns to see Theon Greyjoy by her side. She glares at him.

“When did you get here?”

He just grins at her, while behind them, Bran explains. “He's been sneaking in at night a lot these past few months. You've just not been there to notice.”

Cat opens her mouth, and then closes it again, blushing furiously.

“Hey, don't worry about, Mrs. Stark, me and Robb kept a good eye on the little ones. Promise,” he says, biting into his pear, and Cat sighs. She does trust her oldest son, really. Even though she only just realises he's not at the kitchen table with the rest of them. “Speaking of which, I'd best be off. He's waiting for me.”

Cat raises her eyebrows, and then reminds herself that really, she does not want to know. Robb's a big boy now.

Theon starts to head up the stairs, then stops and turns around. “By the way, Dany?” Dany blinks in surprise. Theon grins again. “A-plus MILF F-ing. Colour me impressed.”

Cat blushes even more at that, while Theon just laughs as he disappears upstairs. Dany raises her eyebrows. “You know, someone ought to talk to that boy about objectifying women,” she says.

“That's just Theon,” Cat dismisses it automatically, but Dany does not look exactly convinced. Cat thinks it over some more “...But you're right, someone ought to talk to him.” She supposes that's her job. Still, it can wait until he and Robb are finished with whatever they're doing.

Across the table, Rickon frowns, but luckily he doesn't ask what that stands for. Although it might be worse if the reason he doesn't ask is because he already knows.

“Anyway,” Sansa says, leaning across the table and grinning. “You two lovebirds have anything planned for today?”

Cat blushes again while Dany just laughs. “Not really. To be honest, it's entirely too cold to even leave the house, so you lot might be stuck with me for awhile.”

“Are we going to be trapped in the basement all night again?” Arya asks, and Sansa smacks her arm.

Cat averts her eyes, staring out the window into her snowy back garden. Well, this is somewhat embarrassing. But still, when she looks back at Dany sitting with her children, laughing and joking with them, she can't help but smile. They look like a family. They look like her family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did not expect this fic to get as epically long as it did. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed!


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